Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity

The ”Transcultura” Programme: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity extends the Second Call for Applications to the Transcultura Scholarship Scheme, in partnership with the University of West Indies Open Campus (UWIOC). 

The UNESCO Transcultura Programme: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, in collaboration with The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Open Campus, has benefitted 150 cultural facilitators from training institutions in Cuba and the Dominican Republic who received the Blended Teaching Training Course. 

The UNESCO Transcultura programme, supported by the European Union, sponsored four groups of talented young musicians from the Caribbean, Azueï, Blvk H3ro & Reggae Soul Band, Yarima Blanco y Son Latino and Cimafunk, to participate in the World Music Exhibition (WOMEX), whose 21st edition took place in Porto (Portugal) from 27 to 31 October 2021.

To Cimafunk, music is medicine, "It can cure or intoxicate you. It can cure or intoxicate you. It may change your personality completely, making you evolve or regress. It can open your mind and show you other ways to see the world. Music is sound playing with time. That’s ancient and powerful magic!" With this conviction, Cimafunk and his band will arrive at the Worldwide Music Expo, WOMEX, to be held in Porto, Portugal, from 29 to 31 October. 

For Jamaican musician Blvk H3ro, winning the UNESCO Transcultura Programme Call to perform at the Worldwide Music Expo, WOMEX, is a unique opportunity.  The young Jamaican's music proposal is the result of years of experimentation, and of his progress along the road of music, a path that he began as a singer in his church choir.

Yarima Blanco has the vital energy of a person born in eastern Cuba. In 2006, she became the first woman to graduate from the University of the Arts (ISA) majoring in the tres, a fact that has marked her life, on a journey with an instrument that, until then, had been the exclusive domain of men in higher education.

Between Haiti and the Dominican Republic there is a lake named Azueï, where, in 2015, a movement of artists from both countries was born, seeking to do away with the narrative of conflict and hatred in political relations. The decision was no coincidence. They chose the name of the lake, of Taino origin, as a powerful symbol of common heritage, an indivisible body of water for which there is simply no border.

The jury of the event parallel to the Worldwide Music Expo, offWOMEX, announced that Yarima Blanco y Son Latino, from Cuba; the Dominican Republic and Haitian group, Azueï; and the Blvk H3ro & Reggae Soul Band from Jamaica are the winners of the UNESCO Transcultura-WOMEX Call, among over a hundred competing groups. Another winner, as ruled by an independent jury, is Cimafunk, from Cuba.

The Transcultura Programme: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity launches this First Call for Applications in the framework of its Regional Scholarship Scheme. It is a fully funded scheme supporting young artists and cultural professionals developing a career related to culture and creativity. Candidates will have the opportunity to enroll in short capacity-building courses on cultural heritage and creative industries offered by the Transcultura Regional Cultural Training Hub.