Ten years ago, one of Cuba's leading young artists took her own life, with no warning to family or friends. Her name was Belkis Ayon, and a major exhibit of her work is now under way in Havana. The ...

On their knees, blindfolded, five young men listen to blessings in Yoruba, a language brought by African slaves more than four centuries ago, to become the new members of the Abakua society, a unique ...

part 1. "The Light Inside": Abakua Society Arts and Modern Cuban Cultural History -- 1. Introduction: Meanings, Methods, and the Cultural Biography of Things Abakua -- 2. The Abakua Society and the ...

But this scene is not taking place in West Africa: this is Cuba, and the five young men here are converting to Abakua, a uniquely Cuban spiritual practice. Faced with economic hardships and the ...

The Cuban artist’s big, richly textured collographs—made by running collaged cardboard through a printing press—are populated by mysterious, silhouetted figures with piercing, almond-shaped eyes. They ...

Rain is beating down on steaming asphalt in central Havana, a hard-bitten patch of town. I am looking for a street-corner rumba and know my destination will call me by the 12/8 slap of a palm on the ...