Hay Festival Cartagena 2023

If we wish to create most just societies, with an equality of opportunities and rights, it is important to analyse the structural racism that exists around us. We talk to five experts from five countries in the region about how to counter racism through education and change: with Mario Ellington (Guatemala), a Garifuna lawyer and former Vice-minister of Culture in Guatemala; Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé (Colombia), academic and Colombian Ambassador in Senegal; Federico Pita (Argentina), activist and intellectual; and Roberto Zurbano (Cuba), a cultural critic and essayist; in conversation with Yoseth Ariza Araújo, Director of the Centre for Afrodiaspora Studies at the ICESI University.

We talk about the territory and its community management, about the link between the culture and history of peoples, with their places of residence, and the need for self-management shared among inhabitants. With Olimpia Palmar (Colombia), Wayuu expert in human rights, communicator and activist; Gustavo Ulcué Campo (Colombia), Nasa film producer and activist; and Ricardo Villafañe (Colombia) Arhuaco Indigenous leader, advocate, and promoter of environmental protection. They will talk to Weildler Guerra.

Wolfram Eilenberger (Germany) is a philosopher, journalist and writer. His passion is the application of philosophical ideas in everyday life, whether politics, culture or sport. Founding Editor of Philosophie Magazin, he has published Time of the Magicians. The Invention of Modern Thought 1919-1929, and now presents Geister der Gegenwart, an exploration of the thought of Theodor W. Adorno, Susan Sontag, Michel Foucault and Paul Feyerabend. The book follows the path of a set of ideas that are essential for our times: from dismantling the myth of blind faith, to the progress of conspiracy theories; from sexual liberation to the most reductionist wokeness. In conversation with Óscar Guardiola-Rivera.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (United States / Palestine) poet, essayist, and translator. She is author of the poetry book Something About Living, winner of the 2024 National Book Award, as well as Kaan and her Sisters. She was the translator and curator of the 2022 series “Poems from Palestine” at the Baffler magazine. In 2024 she curated a year-long subscription of Palestinian poetry books with Open Books, Seattle’s poetry-only bookstore. Lena spent ten years working with journalists and editors as a volunteer for Seattle's Arab American community organizations. She helped to tell the stories of people living between two homelands, people who speak in translation and navigate the realities of long wars. Odette Yidi David is a Palestinian-Colombian researcher and adjunct professor at Universidad del Norte. In conversation with Odette Yidi David, (Colombia / Palestine).

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

In 2025, the Hay Festival celebrates 20 years of conversations and thought in Colombia. To mark the anniversary, we have run a collaborative project in which Colombian society has helped us to put the twenty key questions for our time. Given the uncertainty created by the appearance of AI and its increasing use in everyday tasks, figures from the Hay Festival Cartagena ask us to reflect on its development based on the following questions: How can we make ethical use of biomedicine and artificial intelligence? How is it possible to guarantee that artificial intelligence does not increase existing inequalities? In conversation with Sylvie Duchamp will be Marcus du Sautoy (United Kingdom), Rodrigo Quian Quiroga (Argentina) and Rafael Yuste (Spain).

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Susan Neiman (United States) is an outstanding philosopher and writer known for her contributions in the fields of moral philosophy, the Enlightenment, metaphysics and politics. Educated at Harvard, Neiman has taught at Yale and the University of Tel Aviv, and, since 2000 has directed the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. Her new book, Left Is Not Woke, is a critical examination of the distinction between the principles of the left and the phenomenon sometimes known as woke, arguing that the true spirit of the left is based on universalism, justice and the possibility of progress, values that she considers have been distorted by some contemporary currents which prioritise tribal identities, tending towards conservatism. In conversation with Laura Quintana.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

The writer and historian Anne Applebaum (United States), winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction for Gulag. A History and author of Twilight of Democracy. The seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, goes into greater depth in this direction with Autocracy Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, a book that won the German Booksellers’ Peace Prize. As well as offering a study of the methods of modern autocrats, Applebaum uncovers an intricate network that links totalitarian regimes to the financial world, security services that are dedicated to espionage, and talented propagandists. In conversation with José Manuel Acevedo.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

All Sunday 2 February events will be free for people from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your ID, between 27 Janaury and 2 February.

Susan Neiman (United States) is an outstanding philosopher and writer known for her contributions in the fields of moral philosophy, the Enlightenment, metaphysics and politics. Educated at Harvard, Neiman has taught at Yale and the University of Tel Aviv, and, since 2000 has directed the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. Her new book, Left Is Not Woke, is a critical examination of the distinction between the principles of the left and the phenomenon sometimes known as woke, arguing that the true spirit of the left is based on universalism, justice and the possibility of progress, values that she considers have been distorted by some contemporary currents which prioritise tribal identities, tending towards conservatism. In conversation with Iván Luzardo Luna.