Havana poetry festival to bring 30 countries, multiple venues together
Havana’s poetry festival is set to spill across multiple venues, with more than 30 countries and readings tied to schools, neighborhoods and universities.
The best way to catch Havana’s poetry festival will not be from one packed theater seat. It will be by moving with it, from readings to schools to cultural centers, as organizers put the 32nd Havana International Poetry Festival across the city and beyond.
Details are still being finalized, but the shape is already clear: the festival is slated for May 26 to 30 across Cuba, with Prensa Latina saying May 18 that more than 30 countries will take part in the Havana run from May 27 to 30. That makes this one of the island’s most international literary dates of late May, and one of the few that is built to be walked, not just attended.
Cubarte says the festival is dedicated to the centenary of Fidel Castro, with poet Nancy Morejón, a National Literature Prize winner, serving as honorary president. The same announcement places Rainer Maria Rilke and José Lezama Lima at the center of this edition, a pairing that says a lot about how the event likes to move between European modernism and Cuban canon, between memory and reinvention.
What gives the festival its Havana texture is the way it spreads outward. Cubarte says the poetry rally will reach schools, neighborhoods, universities and cultural centers, which means the city will not just host visitors, it will absorb them. That matters in Cuba, where poetry is often treated less like a specialist pursuit and more like a public act, something to be heard in classrooms, community spaces and half-open cultural houses as much as on a formal stage.
That same broad reach has been part of the festival’s identity before. The 30th edition in 2024 brought 82 international poets from America, Europe and Africa, along with writing workshops, literary recitals, book launches, visual art exhibitions and concerts. Readings also ran through universities, elementary schools, communities and Old Havana’s historic center, a pattern that suggests this year’s version will once again be less a single event than a citywide circuit.
For anyone planning to experience Havana through poetry, that is the real draw. UNESCO describes Havana as Cuba’s leading tourist destination and a major hub of creativity and music production, and the festival fits squarely into that image. It gives the city another reason to feel alive at street level, with poetry moving through the same places where Cubans study, gather and argue about culture.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
