The Arts of Cuba, Set to Wow New York

Larry Rohter
The New York Times
February 9, 2011

The Cuban rumba and dance troupe Los Muñequitos de Matanzas hasn’t performed in New York in nearly a decade. Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, which mixes Afro-Caribbean dance and classical European ballet and was founded in 1959, has never been to the United States. Neither have the socially conscious photographers Adonis Flores and Cirenaica Moreira.

All those and more than two dozen other artists will take part in a wide-ranging festival of Cuban arts that will last more than two months in locations around New York this spring. The festival, called “¡Sí Cuba!,” is one of the most significant indications that cultural relations between the United States and Cuba are thawing after nearly a decade in a deep freeze...

...Events in which Cuban artists are involved are contingent on their getting approval to leave their country and visas to travel to the United States. That was often a problem during the Bush administration, but organizers say they are less worried now, even though restrictions on the ability to pay Cubans for their work in the United States remain in place.

“It’s obviously not done until it’s done,” said Susan L. Segal, president of the Americas Society, which will be sponsoring readings and panels on novels and plays and a multimedia exhibition focused on posters and film. “But this is a very prestigious festival, so I can’t imagine they will have problems getting visas.”

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