Join us for a reading from Reina María Rodríguez, one of the most representative poets of contemporary Cuban literature, in celebration of becoming recipient of the 2022 La Avellaneda Medal, the highest recognition in letters conferred by the Cuban Cultural Center of New York.

Born in Havana in 1952, less than a decade before the Cuban revolution, she has been recognized in Cuba not only as a major poet but as an advocate for alternative (non-state) cultural spaces. She used her rooftop home, informally known as la azotea de Reina, as an intellectual salon that became an important literary hub in Havana for three decades.

Among Rodríguez’ publications are La gente de mi barrio (1978); Cuando una mujer no duerme (UNEAC, 1980); Para un cordero blanco (Casa de las Américas, 1984); En la arena de Padua (Ediciones Unión, 1992); Páramos (Ediciones Unión, 1993); La foto del invernadero (Casa de las Américas, 1998); and the anthology Ellas escriben cartas de amor. Reina María Rodríguez has won two Casa de las Américas Prizes (1984, 1998), three National Critics’ Awards (1992, 1995, 1999), two Julián de Casal Prizes (1980, 1983), the National Literature Prize, Cuba’s top literary prize (2013), and the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Award for Poetry (2014).

English translations of her work include Violet Island and Other Poems, tr. Kristin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen (Green Integer., 2004), La detencion del tiempo / Time’s Arrest , tr. Dykstra (Factory School, 2005), and Other Letters to Milena / Otras cartas a Milena, tr. Dykstra (University of Alabama Press, 2014).

Refreshments will be available for a suggested donation.