Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

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 Weildler Guerra (Colombia) Wayuu anthropologist, 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 Martin von Hildebrand.

What happens when women challenge power? In conversation with Gloria Susana Esquivel, two writers explore, through fiction and non-fiction respectively, examples of cooperation among women. Txell Feixas (Spain) has been a correspondent in the Middle East, based in Beirut, for the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals and she is the author of the book Mujeres valientes, which deals with the struggles of women during the conflicts of the Middle East. She also received the 2024 National Journalism Prize for her book Aliadas. Laura Ortiz Gómez (Colombia) is the author of Indócil, a work of history that explores the “broom strike”, a popular movement that occurred in Argentina in 1907 when women, inhabitants of the conventillos of Buenos Aires, refused to pay their rent and took to the streets.

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. We are asking ourselves more and more whether we are progressing towards equality of gender, race and class; we tackle this matter based on the following questions: How can we fight structural racism? How is it possible to guarantee that artificial intelligence does not increase existing inequalities? What can the city learn from the countryside, and vice versa? With Gioconda Belli (Nicaragua), Bocafloja (Mexico), Ochy Curiel (Dominican Republic) Colm Tóibín (Ireland) and Justin Torres (United States) in conversation with Ayisha Osori.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Paula Moreno Zapata, author of Soñar lo imposible and El poder de lo invisible, will engage in a conversation with Gilbert Shang Ndi, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Bayreuth and author of several works exploring the African experience and its diaspora. In this conversation, the participants will discuss relevant authors who have not yet been translated and who are significant to the realities of Colombia and the Americas. They will also share their experiences studying African literature, highlighting its icons and the resonances it holds in the American continent.

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.