In the column Inside the Library (C& América Latina), Mónica Garabito reviews Librería Ireti, in Havana, Cuba. Garabito writes, “In Yoruba, ireti means hope or a positive expectation for the future. It’s also the name of the project that turned one year old in February, founded by Katiuska Govin in her own home.” The author also selected her five favorites from the Ireti collection: Reyita, sencillamente (1997) by Daisy Rubiera Castillo; Poesía completa (2016) by Georgina Herrera; Sara Gómez: Un cine diferente (2017) by Olga García Yero; La cultura Rastafari en Cuba (2011) by Samuel Furé Davis; and Recopilación de textos sobre Nicolás Guillén (Casa de las Américas, 1974).
Visiting Ireti is a rare, almost intimate experience. After reaching out to Katiuska, she personally shares the address and welcomes you in her house in El Cerro – a neighborhood as central as it is historically marginalized in Havana. Once inside, you find yourself in an organic space where Black consciousness and epistemic justice are cultivated. The shelves hold rare and wide-ranging works – poetry, Pan-Aficanism, African children’s stories, theater, film, cuisine, and more – most of them written by and for Black people. Many of these treasures were rescued by Katiuska through tireless searches in public and private bookstores across the island. The catalog brings together voices of Black authors from Cuba, the African continent, and its broader diaspora.
Here are five essential works that allow us to savor the richness of Cuban Black culture:
Reading this testimonial biography is like traveling through time, guided by the profound life experience of María de los Reyes Castillo, or simply Reyita, a Black woman who witnessed the birth of the Cuban republic, lived through the revolution, while confronting the afterlives of slavery. The book was written by her daughter, Daisy Rubiera, one of the great writers and wisdom keepers of Cuba’s antiracist movement, also known as one of the Ceibas Vivas. [. . .]
Read the full review (translated by Jess Oliveira) at https://amlatina.contemporaryand.com/editorial/libreria-ireti-havana-cuba/
[Photo above by Mónica Garabito.]
In the column Inside the Library (C& América Latina), Mónica Garabito reviews Librería Ireti, in Havana, Cuba. Garabito writes, “In Yoruba, ireti means hope or a positive expectation for the future. It’s also the name of the project that turned one year old in February, founded by Katiuska Govin in her own home.” The author also selected