Opinion
My Dialogues With a Political Prisoner
“It feels like the world has forgotten about us,” said artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who recently served four years of his sentence in a maximum-security Cuban prison.
Cuba
Art
The Cuban Artists Who Turned Havana's May Day Parade Into a Protest
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Raychel Carrión used state-orchestrated political theater as a backdrop for their critiques of institutional power and mindless consent.
News
Cuban Vice Minister of Culture Removed From Office
Fernando Rojas, long criticized by Cuban artists for his complicity with the island’s oppressive regime, will remain as an advisor to the minister.
News
Cuban Artist's Message of Defiance From Prison
"There rises within me a rebellious spirit, that does not allow me to resign myself," says Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
![Over 200 Cuban Artists Call to Boycott State-Sponsored Cultural Events on the Island [UPDATED]](/content/images/size/w600/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2023/08/rachel-carrion-artwork.jpg)
News
Over 200 Cuban Artists Call to Boycott State-Sponsored Cultural Events on the Island [UPDATED]
Tania Bruguera, Coco Fusco, and Tomás Sánchez are among artists urging the international art community to abandon the “political fantasy that Cuba is a socialist utopia.”
Interview
Can You Buy the Time of a Political Prisoner?
Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who remains behind bars at the Guanajay maximum security prison, talks to Claudia Genlui Hidalgo about his latest — and unconventional — project.
News
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Wins Prince Claus Impact Award
The jailed artist was praised for his activism against censorship and authoritarianism in Cuba.
History
Blowback Explores the Messy History of US Interventionism
The well-researched podcast has done deep dives into US attempts at regime change in Iraq and Cuba, with its new season tackling the Korean War.
News
Cuba Sentences Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara to Five Years in Prison
Rapper Maykel “Osorbo” Pérez was sentenced to nine years.
News
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Speaks Out From Prison Ahead of Trial
"I am an artist and a human being struggling to get out of this unjust prison, but every day my love of free and honest art grows firmer," the persecuted artist said in a statement from a maximum-security prison in Cuba.
News
Cuban Artists Test the Frontiers of Political Dissent
The artists in Umbral, or “threshold,” address the dystopia of voicing dissent on the island and the tension of existing as a Cuban citizen anywhere in the world.
News
Carmen Herrera, Celebrated Cuban-American Geometric Artist, Is Dead At 106
The long-overlooked artist received her first museum survey at age 83.