Scholars

Lester Hamlet is a distinguished filmmaker born in Cuba, with a solid trajectory in the film, music, and entertainment industries. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated versatility and talent in various areas of audiovisual creation, from directing feature films, short films, and documentaries to producing music videos and live concerts for major record labels and top-tier events.

In the music industry, Hamlet has worked as a director and producer of renowned music videos for well-known artists, establishing himself as a key figure in the connection between music and cinematic language. His ability to translate the essence of songs into visually striking images has earned him multiple awards at national and international festivals.

In cinema, his work has been awarded at various international festivals, with films like "Tres Veces Dos" (2004), which won the Silver Zenit for Best First Feature at the Montreal World Film Festival, and "Casa Vieja" (2010) and "Ya no es antes" (2016), both of which received the Audience Award at the Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in their respective years. His films, including "Fábula" (2011), have been recognized for their ability to tell moving stories through sensitive direction, precise knowledge of cinematic laws, and a highly refined aesthetic.

Hamlet has also played a key role in Cuban television, directing dramatic series and telenovelas with a significant impact on audiences. He has taught acting and directing, and his deep understanding of the performing and audiovisual arts has led him to be invited as a juror at film festivals and to give lectures and workshops on film and acting.

With a career that spans film, music, and live entertainment, Lester Hamlet continues to be an influential figure in both the Cuban and international cultural landscapes, combining his passion for visual storytelling with his commitment to teaching and contemporary art.

Tessa Mars is a Haitian visual artist born and raised in Port-au-Prince. She completed a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts at Rennes 2 University in France in 2006 after which she returned to live and work in Haiti. Mars's work presents her efforts to reconnect to a Haitian perspective of the world. Her paintings and papier maché objects have been shown recently in the exhibitions "Your presence does not escape me" at Tiwani Gallery in London and "Who Tells a Tale adds a Tail" (2022) at the Denver Art Museum in Denver. Mars is an Alumna of the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2020-2022). She currently resides in Puerto Rico. 

Luz Mely Reyes is a prominent Venezuelan journalist specializing in politics and migration. As co-founder and general director of Efecto Cocuyo, a digital media outlet focused on human rights and sensitive issues, she has demonstrated a deep commitment to journalism.

Her experience as a reporter and editor has enriched recognized publications, such as The Washington Post in Spanish and El País from Spain. Reyes coordinates the informative initiative Venezuela Migrante and broadcasts the programs Con La Luz and Cocuyo Claro Raspao every week.

She is an analyst and speaker on topics related to independent journalism in authoritarian contexts, migration coverage, and electoral processes coverage.

Luz Mely Reyes's achievements have been widely recognized with prestigious awards, including the CPJ Award and the German-French Award for Human Rights. In 2018, she was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the Guardians of Journalism. She was also awarded the Lasa prize for Latin American journalists.

Since April 2024, she has been a Knight Fellow at ICFJ, working with journalists in exile.

She serves on several prominent boards, including Premio Gabo, Reuters Institute, IPYS Venezuela, Fundamedios USA, and WOLA. She is a co-author of guides on how to cover Venezuelan migration.

Luz Mely Reyes holds a degree in journalism from the Central University of Venezuela and is a master's student in Social Communications at Andrés Bello Catholic University. She also completed the Journalism Entrepreneurship Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

She teaches at the Gabo Foundation and has been a professor at prestigious institutions such as the Central University of Venezuela, Andrés Bello Catholic University, and Simón Bolívar University. 

Talita Trizoli is a Brazilian art historian, curator and researcher, specializing in Brazilian feminist art and gender and ethical issues in the art field in a systemic perspective.

She recently finished a Post-doctorate at the Institute of Brazilian Studies (IEB-USP) where she dedicated herself to study the intellectual career and art criticism production of Aracy Amaral and Maria Eugênia Franco. She holds a Ph.D. in Education under the supervision of Prof. Celso Favaretto with the thesis "Feminist Crossings: an overview of women artists in Brazil in the 60s/70s", and also a Master's degree from the Interunit Program in Aesthetics and History of Art on the Museum of Contemporary Art with the dissertation "Regina Vater. For a feminist critique of Brazilian art", supervised by Prof. Cristina Freire, both at the University of São Paulo . Bachelor's and Licentiate's degrees were in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Uberlândia (2007).

She was a professor at the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo, the Faculty of Visual Arts and EAD at UFG, and at DEART - UFU. She is currently a member of GAAI - STUDY GROUP - Genres, Arts, Artifacts and Images of USP, and has also participated in the Getty Workgroup/Seminar "Narrating Art and Feminisms: Eastern Europe and Latin America", and the MOMA Cisneros Institute project “Bridging the Sacred: Spiritual Streams in Twentieth-Century Latin American and Caribbean Art, 1920–70”.

She curates projects related to issues of feminism, gender, politics and ethics in the arts, such as "The Great Circus of Patriarchy", a group exhibition by G.A.F., the result of months of bibliographic and iconographic immersion on the representations of masculinity from a female perspective, and the one-woman show of Adalgisa Campos "As Measure", featuring a 25-year selection of the artist work. She is also the coordinator of the G.A.F., a feminist art group workshop, to where she is able to exchange analysis with female artists about their productions and careers, and also elaborate projects in groups.

To see more, please check the follow links:

• Profile on ORCid: Connecting research and researchers  
• Curriculum Vitae online
• Talitatrizoli.com google website

Daymé Arocena

Daymé Arocena (born January 1992) is an Afro-Cuban composer-vocalist from Havana, who has been described as Cuba's "finest young female singer." Arocena began performing semi-professionally when she was eight years old; at the age of 14, she became the lead singer of the band Los Primos. She recently left Cuba definitively in the wake of government violence against street protestors in 2021, and now resides in Puerto Rico. She co-authored a music video with Cuban musician Pável Urkiza, “Todo por tí” which is both a lament for the island and a critique of its current politics, as it depicts the victims of police violence. She has released several albums to critical acclaim; most recently Sonocardiogram in 2019. She won the 2015 Juno Award for the best jazz album, as a member of the jazz band Maqueque performing with Canadian musician Jane Bunnett. Arocena is on National Public Radio's (NPR) list of 50 favorite albums of 2015, with the album Nueva Era. Describing Arocena's voice, NPR host Felix Contreras called her "a cross between Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin," saying that Arocena's name "deserve[d] to be alongside those two legendary voices."

Frank Báez

Frank Báez, born in the Dominican Republic in 1978, has published six books of poetry, a short story collection, and three nonfiction books. In 2006 he received the Short Story Prize of the Santo Domingo International Book Fair for Págales tú a los Psicoanalistas, and in 2009 he won the Salomé Ureña National Poetry Prize for Postales. In 2017 he was selected by the Hay Festival as a member of Bogotá39, the list of the best Latin American writers under forty years of age. He is one of the founders of the spoken word band, El Hombrecito. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, and translations of his books of poetry have been published in Arabic, Dutch, German, Bangla, and English.

Tessa Mars

Tessa Mars (1985) is a Haitian visual artist born and raised in Port-au-Prince. She completed a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts at Rennes 2 University in France in 2006 after which she returned to live and work in Haiti. Mars's work presents her efforts to reconnect to a Haitian perspective of the world. Her paintings and papier maché objects have been shown recently in the exhibitions "Your presence does not escape me" at Tiwani Gallery in London and "Who Tells a Tale adds a Tail" (2022) at the Denver Art Museum in Denver. Mars is an Alumna of the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2020-2022). She currently resides in Puerto Rico. 

• Small Axe art issue #1
• Perspectives: Riddles of Identity: Tessa Mars in Context
• Haiti: Tessa et l’Empereur
• Tessa Mars - Article by David Knight Jr for Caribbean Linked IV - 09/16
• TessaMars.com Selected Works, About, CV, Contact, and News

Ángel Nakamura

Ángel Nakamura is a multimedia journalist with 18 years of experience covering breaking news and stories in Mexico related to organized crime, politics, social issues, the justice system, sports, arts and human rights. He firmly believes that journalism requires constant innovation and exciting new formats for the social media users. He’s always in search of constant professional and personal development and open to new challenges. He is a Texan by adoption.

24 hours with Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador