Hay Festival Arequipa 2023

At this event with the British journalist Emma Graham-Harrison, a doctor and a war correspondent will talk about the present conflict, whose repercussions go beyond the borders of countries and continents. Lindsey Hilsum (United Kingdom) has reported on conflicts and refugee movements in Syria, Mali, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Kosovo, Afghanistan and, of course, Ukraine. Henry Marsh (United Kingdom) is a renowned former neurosurgeon and author of publishing successes such as Do No Harm and the more recent And Finally. Matters of Life and Death, which tells the story of his experiences as a cancer patient. With a long career in the profession, Henry Marsh is known for having supported the development and practice of neuroscience in the Ukraine.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Motivated by their successful experience at the 2022 HFA, at the music and dance workshops run by the Hogar de Cristo, the children and young people involved have created a musical work full of life. They invite us to the opening of El árbol de la queñua es vida. This is a show featuring Huayno music and which will involve the active participation of the audience. In this way, we will celebrate this great tree that represents life. This is a dramatic work that aims to underline all that is good about Mother Earth and remember that there were once queñua forests in the highest areas of Arequipa. By reviving the rituals of our ancestors –who knew well that Mother Earth must be respected and venerated, and understood that dance and music are food for the soul– we can better appreciate the relationship between art and nature. The musical is a call to be aware of the importance of native plants. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the streets of Arequipa were full of trees? Can we not dream of recovering those queñua woods in the city’s upper reaches? Together we can take the first steps to make this dream a reality. We enjoy the Huayno El árbol de la queñua es vida.

Musical director: Américo Martínez

Musical arrangement: Jesús Alberto Gonzales

Choreography and dance: Noemí Rojas Surco

Director of the Hogar de Cristo: Flor Esteban Ninantay

Eley Williams is the author of The Liar’s Dictionary, a novel that in 2021 won a Betty Trask Award and which The Guardian newspaper included on its list of books of the year. In 2023, Williams was selected by the prestigious magazine Granta as one of the best young British novelists. She shares this honour with Carlos Yushimito (Peru), named in 2010 as one of the best young Spanish-language novelists by the same magazine. The author will present his book El peso inevitable de las palomas, with which he returns to the short fiction form that originally brought him to the attention of a wide public. In conversation with Valerie Miles.

This event is part of the Hay Festival and British Council’s Literary Pairs series; each pair will repeat their event at the Hay Festival in Wales in 2024.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

This writer, shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Miguel Bonnefoy (Venezuela/France) returns with L’inventeur, a new novel that has something of the quixotic about it and which brings to life the figure of Augustin Mouchot. Practically unknown today, Mouchot was a mid-19th-century French inventor and pioneer in the use of solar energy, who managed to create a machine able to produce a block of ice using only the light of the sun. However, his extraordinary achievements were buried by the economic interests involved in the coal trade. In conversation with Orlando Mazeyra, the author will talk about this striking figure, whose inventions could have completely transformed the course of history as we know it.

Who were the Incas really? How did this great empire develop historically and culturally? Is its legacy still present in our contemporary culture? This illustrated book, created based on the exhibition Los incas. Más allá de un imperio, organised by the Lima Art Museum (MALI), aims to tackle these questions in a way never before done, based on the most recent and detailed scientific research. An event to give young people the chance to have a very current and close look at our ancestors, together with the archaeologist, visual artist and MALI curator, Patricia Villanueva.

With Marina Zileri and Fernando Arce The children will explore the possibilities of the world of clay, ceramic and small-scale puppetry, experiencing different creative processes, with the final result of making finger puppets. We will start with possibilities of faces, and then bodies, to end up with details that define our clay puppets.

This event will be part of the South to South series, in which the Hay Festival offers a forum for some of the most innovative voices of the global South, in order to share different ways of seeing the world, as well as non-Western solutions to the problems that beset us. Talking to Emma Graham-Harrison will be the Mexican filmmaker Natalia Beristain, director of films such as Los adioses and Ruido; Carlos Moreno, the French-Colombian scientist and urban planning expert, famous for creating the idea of the 15-minute city; and Djamila Ribeiro, the Brazilian philosopher and activist, known for publications such as Lugar de fala and Quem tem medo do feminismo negro?

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available