Havana, Cuba — Renowned Cuban poet, editor, and cultural organizer Alex Pausides has announced the launch of an international poetic initiative titled “For Cuba: 100 Graffiti Against the Wall,” calling on poets from around the world to participate in a collective artistic action in defense of Cuba and Latin America against imperial war and cultural erasure.
The initiative is conceived as a powerful convergence of poetry and visual art. One hundred poets from different countries will each contribute three verses, which will be transformed by prominent Cuban painters into a monumental mural to be installed in a central public location in Havana. The mural is envisioned as a living testament of international solidarity, resistance, and creative unity.
In announcing the project from Havana, Pausides extended a personal invitation to selected poets worldwide, emphasizing the symbolic and historical weight of the action. He invoked the enduring words of Cuba’s national poet José Martí, who wrote:
“Whoever rises up for Cuba today, does so for all time.”
Beyond the public mural, the project will have a lasting literary legacy. All participating poems will be collected and published in a book, ensuring that the voices raised in solidarity with Cuba will reach readers far beyond the mural’s physical space.
Alex Pausides is one of Cuba’s most influential literary figures. A poet and editor, he founded the Havana Poetry Festival in 1995 and currently directs Colección SurEditores. Over the course of his career, he has worked extensively as a literary advisor, editor, and cultural project manager, playing a key role in shaping contemporary Cuban and Latin American poetic dialogue.
Participation Details:
Each poet is asked to submit three verses.
Submissions will be integrated into the Havana mural and included in the forthcoming book.
Poets are encouraged to respond and submit their work as soon as possible.
Submissions and correspondence should be sent to:
“For Cuba: 100 Graffiti Against the Wall” stands as a call to poets worldwide to unite language, art, and conscience—transforming words into a visible act of resistance and hope, written on the walls of Havana and echoed across time.
