Hay Festival Medellín 2025

At the renovated Parque Biblioteca Santo Domingo Savio, the Mexican poet, social communicator, and spoken word and Hip Hop artist, Aldo Villegas, known artistically as Bocafloja, will be talking about his work and his use of Hip Hop as a tool for social awareness in Latin America. His recent book, Del mondongo al Ojalá, is an innovative collection that combines short stories, poetry, micro-stories, and photography, exploring non-linear narratives and anti-colonial epistemologies from the racialized experience in the global south.

Rafael Navarro (Spain), sociologist, farmer and environmental activist, is the author of Planeta ecológica, a novel about an agricultural engineer who decides to turn her life around and about which he will be discussing at the Biblioteca La Floresta. In conversation with Juan Pablo Pineda Arteaga.

Columnist and writer Melba Escobar (Colombia), author of the children's book Johnny y el mar, the non-fiction book Cuando éramos felices pero no lo sabíamos, and the novels Duermevela, La casa de la belleza, La mujer que hablaba sola, among others, will visit the Biblioteca Pública Piloto to talk about Las huérfanas, her latest book that portrays her mother, Myriam de Nogales, "an unattainable woman in her skills and talents, passionate, caustic, wounded and hurtful, brilliant." In conversation with Manuela Gómez.

Inspired by the life and work of Fernando Botero, the artist who gave volume to Colombian culture, BOTERO is a production and original idea of the Medellín Metropolitan Ballet. It includes the choreography of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, music by Juan Pablo Acosta, and costume design by Diana Echandía. BOTERO is a performance in which the audience can witness how the paintings and sculptures of "Boterismo" are transformed into the ephemeral art of dance before their eyes. It is based on the story that Botero would paint a fly to achieve the perfect balance in his works of art, and the choreography suggests the observation of his work on stage.

Free entry with ticket