Hay Festival Cartagena 2023

Welcome to the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2023 programme, to be held from 26 to 29 January. In this page you can find the events in the general programme as well as Hay Joven activities tor university audiences, Hay Comunitario sessions which will take place in different areas of Cartagena, Reading Clubs and Talento Editorial.

The tickets of the general programme and reading clubs are on sale for in person events. If you wish to register to see the live streaming of events, please select the option "Register to watch online" when this option is available. Hay Joven, Hay Comunitario and Talento Editorial are 100% in person and free of charge.

If you have any issues regarding the payment of your tickets, please contact us at tickets@hayfestival.org or at +57 317 516 55 13.

If you are a students a wish to request free tickets, you can write to us at estudiantes@hayfestival.com.

If you have any general questions, you can find us at contacto@hayfestival.org.

Event FiltersYou are viewing events filtered byThursday 26 January 2023View All

Event HC1

Workshop with La Pacifican Power: From sea to sea

Evento inaugural

 Institución Educativa 14 de Febrero, El Pozón
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A dialogue about the development of new approaches in music, based on traditional community practices. An experience full of power and zest with the band La Pacifican Power, which brings together some of the most popular voices from El Chocó to Pacífico Sur. At this event, members of La Pacifican Power will run a workshop for musicians that will unite the two musical styles of Colombia’s two coasts. With Nidia Góngora, Alexis Play, Heriberto Bonilla, Adrian Viáfara, Freddy Colorado and César Herrera.
For ages over 10
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Workshop with La Pacifican Power: From sea to sea

Event HC2

Young reporters with Catalina Gómez Ángel

 Casa Hay (Claustro de las Ánimas, Centro de Convenciones)
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The journalist Catalina Gómez Ángel (Colombia) works in the Middle East as a correspondent, covering events in countries such as Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan where she spent time after the fall of the government and the rise of the Taliban. She is the co-author of the book Balas para todas: Seis mujeres journalists en Oriente Medio y el Magreb (2021). This highly experienced reporter will offer a workshop for young community reporters.
For ages over 14
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Young reporters with Catalina Gómez Ángel

Event HC3

Carmen Alvarado

 Biblioteca Encarnación Tovar, La Boquilla
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Carmen Alvarado works in the world of culture, libraries and books. She has also written books featuring characters such as Tío Tigre (Uncle Tiger) and Tío Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) that come from oral tradition, and using them has tacked issues we find in daily life, such as friendship, love and death.



Ages 6 to 10
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Carmen Alvarado

Event HJ1

BBC communication workshop

With Andrea Díaz Cardona, Daniel Pardo y Mar Pichel

 Universidad de Cartagena, Sala de Lectura Biblioteca Fernández de Madrid (Claustro de San Agustín)
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The journalism workshop offered by BBC professionals returns. Designed for communication students in particular and students in general, and featuring Andrea Díaz Cardona, Daniel Pardo and Mar Pichel, members of the BBC Mundo team. They will explain the work model of one of the world’s most respected media outlets, known for its news rigour and quality, talking about how they convey news and content in this digital era.

To participate in this workshop, please fill in the form you will find in this link
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Event 1

Fernando León de Aranoa in conversation with Andrés Mompotes

El Tiempo event

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Fernando León de Aranoa, renowned screenplay writer and director from Spain, will talk about his career in general, and in particular about his most recent work, presenting Sintiéndolo mucho, a documentary about the last decade of Joaquín Sabina. León de Aranoa wrote and directed the movie Barrio, telling the story of the life of a group of teenagers in a marginal neighbourhood, and won the Goya awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, and the Concha de Plata for Best Director at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Mondays in the Sun, starring Javier Bardem, which he directed in 2002, won five Goya Awards and the Concha de Oro for Best Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival. In 2021, his movie The Good Boss, starring Javier Bardem, won the Goya Awards for Best Film and Best Director, and was selected by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain as the Spanish representant at the 94th edition of the Oscars, in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. He will talk to the director of El Tiempo, Andrés Mompotes.

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Event HJ2

Jon Lee Anderson and Óscar Martínez in conversation with Teresita Goyeneche

 Universidad de Cartagena, Aula Máxima de Derecho (Claustro de San Agustín)
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A fascinating discussion about the genre of travel writing with two great journalists and non-fiction authors: the US Jon Lee Anderson, aauthor of books such as Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, The Fall of Baghdad and Los años de la espiral: Crónicas de América Latina; and Óscar Martínez (El Salvador), Head Writer at El Faro and author of Los migrantes que no importan, El niño de Hollywood and the recent Los muertos y el periodista. In conversation with the writer Teresita Goyeneche.

In 2014, the Gabo Foundation and the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias, as part of an alliance which was to last over a decade, decided to organize, in homage to the English writer, the Michael Jacobs Travel Writing Grant, an award supported by the Michael Jacobs Foundation.
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Event HJ3

Daniella Sánchez Russo in conversation with Esteban Vega

Vigilia

 Universidad de Cartagena, Sala de Lectura Biblioteca Fernández de Madrid (Claustro de San Agustín)
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The Barranquilla writer and academic, Daniella Sánchez Russo presents Vigilia, a story constructed using the recollections of two women from the opposite poles of the social scale who discover the world they have in common, the one that underlies their everyday lives. Irene, a woman with newborn twins and a failing marriage, revisits a past with its memories of her sickly brother and the bloody violence of armed groups, in a house where her most honest human connection is with her employee, Luzmila. At this event, the author will talk about this, her first novel, in conversation with Esteban Vega.


This event has taken place

Event 1B

Screening of the documentary film Sintiéndolo mucho, presented by Fernando León de Aranoa

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Sintiéndolo mucho is a portrait of the living musical legend Joaquín Sabina (Spain), made not far from his skin, with nocturnality and premeditation, by his friend, the filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa. A tale that is like his voice, rough and unequalized, which tells the story of the artist's intimacy, behind the scenes, his other side, without mitigation; the story that starts when he leaves the stage, and accompanies him in his daily life, and in the unexpected: laughter and drama. Sintiéndolo mucho is the result of thirteen years of filming together, and tours all stages, public and private, luminous and hidden, of Joaquín Sabina. A promenade through the key points of his life and his work: what moves him, what inspires him, what hurts him, developed through live, shared situations as a musician and a filmmaker.
This event has taken place
Screening of the documentary film Sintiéndolo mucho, presented by Fernando León de Aranoa

Event 2

Laura Restrepo in conversation with Mábel Lara

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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The Colombian writer and journalist, Laura Restrepo, one of Latin America’s most preeminent authors, presents Canción de antiguos amantes, a work of fiction based on the journeys she undertook with Médicins Sans Frontières in the Yemen, Ethiopia and the Somali border area: a magical region that was once the Kingdom of Sheba. This mythical land is used by Restrepo as the setting for two parallel love stories that shift between the real, the biblical and fantasy; and they have in common female figures whose capacity for resilience is stronger than the incidents that fate has in store for them. Laura Restrepo has won awards such as the 2004 Alfaguara Prize and the 2006 Grinzane Cavour Prize for her novel Delirium, which brought her to international attention. On this occasion, she will talk about her latest novel with the journalist Mábel Lara.
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Event 3

María Elvira Samper and Maryluz Vallejo in conversation with Karim Ganem Maloof

Exclusions: Xenophobia and the political use of extradition

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona Escenario Gales / Llwyfan Cymru)
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Racism can be institutional and is always linked to cultural practices that have often been perpetuated over generations, even when there are laws against it. Extradition laws, which in theory facilitate the workings of justice, can be used for political motives. Luckily, more legislation and citizen awareness might be finally changing attitudes behind the systematic discrimination against millions of people, and which have supported illegal extraditions. Talking about these kinds of exclusion will be María Elvira Samper (Colombia), author of Extradición: De Lehder y los Rodríguez a Otoniel. Cuarenta años de “guerra contra las drogas”; and Maryluz Vallejo (Colombia), author of Xenofobia al rojo vivo en Colombia. In conversation with Karim Ganem Maloof.


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Event 4

Moisés Naím in conversation with Michael Stott

The return of the powerful

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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The journalist, writer and political pundit Moisés Naím (Venezuela) presents his most recent book, La revancha de los poderosos: Cómo los autócratas están reinventando la política en el siglo XXI. Naím is a distinguished member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, and directs and presents the television programme Efecto Naím. In his new book, he talks about the relationship between technology and other factors such as the excessive concentration, or fragmentation in some cases, of power, focussing on the three P’s: populism, polarization and post-truth. In conversation with Michael Stott.
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Event 5

José Antonio Figueroa and Paula Marcela Moreno in conversation with Aurora Vergara

Challenging unequal attitudes

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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We celebrate the role of people, particularly those of non-white or of African heritage, who have played major roles in the history of Colombia and the region, but who have often been ignored in the official histories. José Antonio Figueroa (Colombia), anthropologist, thinker, lecturer at the Central University of Ecuador and researcher with the Center for Advanced Latin American Studies, is the author of Republicanos negros, which looks at this essential part played by Afro-descendents in the tradition of republicanism and liberalism in Latin America. Paula Marcela Moreno (Colombia) is an influential social leader, former Minister of Culture, Chair of Corporación Manos Visibles and author of Soñar lo imposible, which brings to light the stories of people who have worked within civil society and offered their talents to create a better country. They will talk to Aurora Vergara.
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Event HJ4

Indhira Serrano in conversation with Laura Romero

 Universidad de Cartagena, Aula Máxima de Derecho (Claustro de San Agustín)
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Based on their experiences of racism and inequality, our two guests will talk about the mindsets that hinder the realization of racialized individuals, launching a message of self-acceptance, respect for differences and pride in the Afro-Colombian heritage. Indhira Serrano began her career as a model, which gave her a very clear view of the media’s influence on people’s perceptions of themselves. Since 2015 she has been running a series of talks and workshops called Reconstruyendo Imaginarios (“Rebuilding Mindsets”), which reflects on the relationships we have with money, education, our partners and power. She has just published her first book, Rosa la crespa. In conversation with journalist Laura Romero.
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Event HJ5

Yayo Herrero in conversation with María del Rosario Osorio

 Universidad de Cartagena, Sala de Lectura Biblioteca Fernández de Madrid (Claustro de San Agustín)
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Yayo Herrero will share some ways to create a more aware and healthy relationship with nature and the environment, in conversation with María del Rosario Osorio, Deacon of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Cartagena. Herrero is a major figure in ecofeminism, an expert in environmental education and sustainable development and the co-author of around a dozen books on the ecological challenges we face. In her work as an activist, she was the State Coordinator of Ecologistas en Acción and General Manager of the ecosocial organization FUHEM.



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Event 6

Jazmín Romero, Maira Alejandra Jayariyu and Nohora Alejandra Quiguantar in conversation with Ricardo Chica

Energy for a better world

 Centro de Convenciones (Salón Barahona Escenario Gales / Llwyfan Cymru)
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The people of this planet use energy. In recent decades, the exponential increase in the population and the consumption of fossil fuels have caused irreversible damage, and we must change our ways. It is a matter of the greatest urgency to undertake global climate action through the reduction of emissions, to make great efforts to adapt, and to channel appropriate funding flows. This needs to happen as part of an integrated framework of sustainable development that will tackle poverty, hunger and unemployment, and improve the empowerment of young, Afro-descendent, indigenous and LGTBIQ+ people, as well as local communities and women; this is a transition that needs to have the planet at its heart. Our guests will talk to Ricardo Chica about this important challenge for humanity. With Jazmín Romero (Colombia), legal representative of the Wayuu Feminist Movement; Maira Alejandra Jayariyu (Colombia), communicator for Fuerza Wayuu; and Nohora Alejandra Quiguantar (Colombia), representative of the Pasto indigenous village of the Muellamués community.

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Event 7

Patricia Nieto and María Emma Wills in conversation with Karim Ganem Maloof

History for a better future

 Centro de Convenciones (Auditorio Getsemaní)
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A journalist and a political scientist both present books that deal with the recent history of Colombia, from a reporter’s point of view, in the case of Nieto, and as an essayist in the case of Wills. Telling this history is essential to the creation of a plural, peaceful future that includes voices other than those that traditionally constitute power. With Patricia Nieto (Colombia), a journalist who has won the Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize and the José Martí Latin American Journalism Prize; her most recent book, Crónicas del paraíso (2022), is a compilation of thirty years of reporting on the war in Colombia, giving a face and a voice to the victims. And with María Emma Wills (Colombia), a political scientist and lecturer at the University of the Andes, advisor to the National Centre for Historical Memory, and also to the District Institute of Cultural Heritage, and a member of the Historical Commission on the Conflict and its Victims. Her book Memorias para la paz o memorias para la guerra is a reflection on the importance of telling a plural narrative of the events that constitute our history. In conversation with Karim Ganem Maloof.
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Event 8

Deforme Semanal Ideal Total

Isabel Calderón and Lucía Lijtmaer

 Teatro Adolfo Mejía
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Deforme Semanal Ideal Total is a fortnightly radio programme for Radio Primavera Sound on which Isabel Calderón and Lucía Lijtmaer give their particular vision of contemporary life and culture, with laughter, some emphatic explanations and, in short, everything you need to know in an hour just for you. Ondas Award for Best Podcast in 2021 and Best Podcast of the Year at the Global Ondas Podcast Awards in 2022 “for creating a radio show with a provocative, feminist view of culture and life”. One of Spain’s most popular shows, with listeners in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

This event will be recorded and later broadcast as a podcast

This event has taken place

Event 9

Margarita García Robayo and Olga Montero Rose in conversation with Eva Orúe

The happy family

 Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española (patio)
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Two writers present their latest novels, whose meticulous prose is employed to deal with the subject of the family, a space that encompasses all of human complexity. With Margarita García Robayo (Colombia), the author of La encomienda, the story of a character who lives far from her family and to whom her sister sends “encomiendas”, packages with gifts, drawings and objects that keep up the family link over the distance. It is a story that speaks of memory, fears, loneliness and family relationships; and with Olga Montero Rose (Peru), the author of Cortejo, which tells the story of Simona, a woman in her mid-40s who has just lost her mother, one of the pillars of her life, and who, around this time, meets a woman who makes her question many of the certainties she once held. The story evolves through the sessions Simona attends weekly with her analyst, which involve examining her experiences of childhood, bereavement, desire and the birth of a new love. In conversation with Eva Orúe.
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Event HJ6

Juan José Borrell in conversation with Camilo Rey

Geopolitics and food

 Universidad de Cartagena, Sala de Lectura Biblioteca Fernández de Madrid (Claustro de San Agustín)
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The Geopolitics researcher and lecturer Juan José Borrell (Argentina) will talk to students about his book Geopolítica y alimentos. The food supply system is a vital question for global geopolitics, and in recent decades international competition for resources has meant that food is now included in strategic and security considerations. In a world in which one in nine people suffer from hunger and in which, by 2050, it is estimated that there will be over 9.3 billion inhabitants, it is of particular importance to look at the factors affecting the food supply. Borrell’s text, the subject of this event, contributes to unpick the myths behind the future challenges of food. In conversation with Camilo Rey.
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Event 10A

La Pacifican Power in concert (General)

 Explanada del Centro de Convenciones
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More than an orchestra or a band, La Pacifican Power is a laboratory of collective creation that seeks to promote the different kinds of cultural manifestation of the Colombian Pacific, in which music has a central place, in dialogue with the oral narrative tradition, the visual arts and others. They will offer us a concert for dancing and enjoying tunes that come from the border of Panama to the border of Ecuador, and from the peaks of the Western Ranges to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The Big Band of the Unit of Culture of Comfenalco Cartagena will present the opening act.
This event has taken place
La Pacifican Power in concert (General)
sura
RCN
Bancolombia