American Artists Urge Obama to Renew Cultural Ties with Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

American Artists Urge Obama to Renew Cultural Ties with Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, March 5 (acn) A US national network of artists urged President Barack Obama to renew cultural ties with Cuba and to eliminate existing restrictions that prevent Cuban artists from traveling to the United States.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, the US-Cuba Cultural Exchange (USCCE) organization sent a letter to President Obama also asking for the elimination of the Cuba travel ban that prevents American citizens from visiting the Caribbean archipelago and urging him to develop normal and respectful relations with Havana.

Thus far, the letter has been signed by more than 1,100 personalities including Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Harry Belafonte, Bonnie Raitt, Eddie Palmieri, Danny Glover and Laura Bickford, among many others.

The letter from the USCCE, an organization founded in 2005, adds that this campaign will continue until the US policy towards Cuba changes and until there is a free exchange of artistic ideas and expressions between both nations.

More: http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2009/0305artistas_usa.htm

[EFerrari]

1. Amy did a nice segment on this today:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/5/cuba

Grammy-Winning Musician Arturo O’Farrill and Ex-Head of US Interests Section in Cuba Vicki Huddleston Back Artists’ Call to Lift Cultural Boycott of Cuba


As calls grow in Washington to reconsider policy toward Cuba, over a thousand artists, musicians and teachers are campaigning for free cultural exchange and allowing Cuban artists into the US. We speak with Grammy Award-winning Cuban American musician Arturo O’Farrill of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra; Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, former head of the US Interests Section in Havana; and human rights attorney Michael Ratner.