Cuba

Trish Thompson and Karolein Verheyen

I left for Cuba on the 1st of April 2007. The flight took me from Kerry to Dublin, then Dublin to Paris and Paris to Havana. I had very little Spanish and was going to be in Cuba for one month.

I wanted to make a photographic reportage on Afro Cuban music, exchange information with the musicians and also network and promote their work in an exhibition at the Samhlaiocht Gallery in July 2007.

At the same time I wanted to improve my own skills and techniques on bongos, conga shakers, clave and guiro and make new friends.

So I brought my bongos, digital and compact cameras, flash, digital voice recorder, lots of euros and lots of spirit.

My trip brought me from Havana to Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Camaguey, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, back to Santa Clara and Havana.

It was a worthwhile experience - heaps of music, visual arts, theatre, dance, film, poetry, long bus journeys, interesting people, ancient cars, bicycles, taxis, rum and cigars and so much politics...

The results of my hard work can be seen in the exhibition - photographs on music and musicians, a short film/slide show with music recorded live in Cuba and a mural with information on Cuban artists gathered while in Cuba.