12th Floor, with coffee, tea, bagels, fruit

Cuban Art Space Exhibit curated by Sandra Levinson and Tarisse Iriarte

• Sandra Levinson - longtime fighter for US-Cuba Normalization, Executive Director and Co-Founder (in 1972), Center for Cuban Studies; founder and curator of the Cuban Art Space gallery since 1991. Author, Venceremos Brigade: Young Americans Sharing the Life and Work of Revolutionary Cuba (1971, available on Amazon)
• Tarisse Iriarte - Independent Art Curator, political activist, New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition

• The War on Cuba, Selected Recent Short Videos – 2 hours total
• Cuba in Africa directed by Negash Abdurahman – 22 minutes

OPENING PLENARY (LIVE-STREAMED WORLDWIDE)

Call the Meeting to Order –Ike Nahem – International US-Cuba Normalization Conference, New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, Retired Amtrak Locomotive Engineer and Teamsters Union Member.

Co-chair: Claudia de la Cruz: Co-Executive Director, The People’s Forum; Longtime popular educator, community organizer, and theologian in Washington Heights and the South Bronx NYC

Co-chair: Tamara Hansen: Co-ordinator Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC), Organizer, International US-Cuba Normalization Conference; Author, 5 Decades of the Cuban Revolution: The Challenges of an Unwavering Leadership

Invocation: Rev. Dorlimar Lebron Malave - The People's Church - FSMC

Welcome: Dr. Rosemari Mealy - is a longtime activist-scholar. Author, Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of A Meeting (Black Classic Press 2014) and Gail Walker Executive Director, IFCO/Pastors for Peace; Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba. (will introduce Teresa Amarelle Boue)

Keynote Address: Noemi Rabaza Fernandez, First Vice-President, Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)

Presentation on Removing Cuba from the infamous US State Department’s “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list (SSOT): Calla Walsh and Shaquille Fontenot National Network on Cuba Co-Chairs

Panelists:

• Professor William LeoGrande – American University, Washington, DC; Co-Author Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana (University of North Carolina Press) and many articles on US-Cuba relations including “Biden, Cuba, and Latin America’s Left Turn” (The Nation)
• Professor August Nimtz, University of Minnesota, longtime scholar and activist; Co-Editor/Translator Race in Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality and articles on “Why There Are No George Floyds in Cuba."
• Carlos Lazo,  Inspiration and Founder of Puentes de Amor/Bridges of Love, High School Teacher, decorated combat medic, Iraq War
• Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder CODEPINK, Board Member the Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE). Will introduce Video Greetings from United States Representative  James McGovern (Massachusetts 2nd Congressional District)

CUBA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA: (Cuba, Africa, the Caribbean, and African-American Struggles)

Co-Chair: Tarisse Iriarte – Independent Art Curator, political activist, New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition

Co-Chair: Khadija Haynes - Sister’s in the Struggle, Brooklyn NYC Community Activist

Special Presentation: Ambassador Yuri Gala Lopez, Deputy Permanent Representative, Cuban UN Mission

Panelists:

• August Nimtz - University of Minnesota, longtime scholar and activist; Co-Editor/Translator Race in Cuba: Essays on the Revolution and Racial Inequality and articles on “Why There Are No George Floyds in Cuba.”
• Isaac Saney - longtime scholar-activist, former Co-Chair for Canadian Network on Cuba, author recently published Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid’s End: Africa’s Children Return (Lexington Books)
• Professor Kenia Serrano, Dean of Preparatory School of Languages, University of Havana, Coordinator, Cuba in Africa Oral History Project
• Dr. Rosemari Mealy - is a longtime activist-scholar. Author, Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of A Meeting (Black Classic Press 2014)
• Negash Abdurahman, Ethiopian-American director of multiple award-winning short film Cuba in Africa – Live-streamed from Addis Abada, Ethiopia
• Anthony Williams, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC), New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition

Co-Chair: Erin Feely-Nahem, LMSW; International US-Cuba Normalization Conference, New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition; long-time leader in the fields of domestic violence and HIV-AIDS, managed a shelter for families devastated by DV that was toured by leaders of the FMC in 2015.

Co-Chair: Anushka Sarkar, Fordham National Lawyers Guild; Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics; Law Clerk, Amazon Labor Union; Peggy Browning Fund Fellow, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights

FMC and National Union of Jurists Representatives on Families Code; Effect of Blockade on Women and Women’s Resistance; Same Sex Marriage Debate and Legal Victory: How it Happened:

Panelists:

• Osmayda Hernandez, Director, FMC International Relations
• Gretel Marante Roset, FMC Secretariat, International Relations Department
• Dr. Yamila Gonzalez Ferrer, Vice-President, National Union of Cuban Jurists, FMC National Committee, Supervisory Committee, UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Alison Bodine - International U.S.-Cuba Normalization Conference Committee, Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice and Executive Member of Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade - Vancouver

Also featuring presenters from US Women and Cuba Collaboration and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Representative, US Women and Cuba Collaboration Q&A Conversation (45 minutes) 

• Co-Chair: Shivani Parikh, Fordham Law School National Lawyers Guild; President, North American South Asian Law Students Association; Stein Scholar for Public Interest and Ethics
• Co-Chair: Calla Walsh, National Network on Cuba (NNOC) Co-Chair, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada student

Panelists: 

• Miya Tada, The People’s Forum
• Natalia Marques, Party for Socialism and Liberation
• Richie Merino, Workers World Party
• Anjelica Langdon, Communication Coordinator, IFCO/Pastors for Peace
• Jacob Buckner, Young Communist League
• Yhamir Chabur, Cuba Si, Venceremos Brigade
• Gabby Prosser, Socialist Workers Party, member Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Union, Participated in 2023 Havana International Book Fair
• Kaleem Hawa, Palestinian Youth Movement, New York Chapter
• Canadian youth representative
• Cuban youth representative
• Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) representative

Moderator: Justine Medina, Cuban-American worker and Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizer at JFK8 Warehouse, New York-New Jersey Si Coalition 

Panelists: 

• Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, Former President, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), working nurse and member of NYSNA negotiating committee at Montefiore Medical Center in successful January 9-11, 2023 strikes at Montefiore and Mt. Sinai Hospitals in NYC. Sheridan-Gonzalez has been a leader in organizing delegations of US union nurses to Cuba and in the promotion of US-Cuba Normalization.
• Chris Smalls, President, Amazon Labor Union, central leader in the successful 2022 organizing drive at Amazon Fulfillment Center JFK8 in Staten Island NYC
• Karl Fritz Edler,  Veteran railroader, Locomotive Engineer, Amtrak Washington, DC Crew Base, BLET-Teamsters Union local and regional officer, part of 2018 Rail Labor Delegation to Cuba, Rail Safety industry activist, leader Harding and LeBrie Defense Committee from the successful campaign defending scapegoated rail workers from the deadly 2013 Lac-Megantic wreck in Quebec-Canada, member Railroad Workers United.
• Chris Hollis, Black Workers for Justice, North Carolina; United Electrical (UE) Workers Union Project Staff
• Kooper Caraway; Executive Director, Connecticut Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• Julie Wolenski, US-Cuba Labor Solidarity, May Day Labor Brigade, introduce Video Message from CTC in Cuba

ORGANIZING THE MOVEMENT IN THE STREETS - Action Against the Blockade in 2023!

Moderator: Jason Corley, member of Cuba Si Coalition NY-NJ;  Mass Action Against Police Brutality - Til We Win network

• Puentes de Amor monthly Caravans and Protest
• NNOC-initiated Summer Action in DC
• October 6 Caribbean-led initiative to launch annual commemorations of the October 6, 1976 anti-Cuba terrorist atrocity by US-based counter-revolutionaries – Isaac Saney
• November UN Vote protests – Cuba Si

Moderator: Bob Schwartz, Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE), Global Health Partners

Panelists: 

• Joan Gibbs, Longtime activist-attorney, National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition Legislative Committee
• Natasha Bannon, ACERE
• Steven Rizzo, Americas Co-Chair, DSA International Committee, a central organizer in passing anti-embargo Resolutions in Boston, Brookline, Somerville MA
• Rita Barouch, Bay Area Cuba Solidarity Network, NNOC Task Force on Resolutions, the leader in successfully promoting the passing of  67 Resolutions by municipalities and labor organizations to end the US anti-Cuba embargo and for US-Cuba Normalization. Co-Chair, Richmond, CA -Regla, Cuba Friendship Committee.

Moderator: Shaquille Fontenot

Co-Moderator:Diane Stradling - Longtime Cuba solidarity activist, Delegation Co-ordinator, Witness for Peace, New Hampshire Peace Action, member Boston-Cuba Solidarity Coalition (july26.org)

Introduction - Mayra Alonso, Marazul Tours

• Brigade/delegation presentations from annual/regular brigades or delegations:
• Venceremos Brigade; IFCO/Pastors for Peace Caravan; Witness for Peace; African Awareness Association; Calixto Garcia Brigade; NNOC May Day Brigade; Building Relations with Cuban Labor; LA US Hands Off Cuba Committee; Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade (Canadian Network on Cuba)

AT THE HISTORIC MALCOLM X AND DR BETTY SHABAZZ MEMORIAL AND EDUCATION CENTER

3940 Broadway @ 165th Street in Manhattan NYC

DOORS OPEN 7:30 PM, PROGRAM 8:00 – 9:30 PM

• Message from Cuban Ambassador to the United States, Lianys Torres Rivera in Washington, DC
• Remarks and Introduction of Cuban Representatives
• Mary-Alice Waters, President, Pathfinder Press; editor or author of more than 35 books on the Cuban Revolution, including Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution within the Revolution -- From Santiago de Cuba and the Rebel Army to the Birth of the Federation of Cuban Women by Vilma Espin, Asela de los Santos, and Yolanda Ferrer.
• Solimar Ortiz Jusino, Cuba Solidarity Committee in Puerto Rico, Deputy Director of the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade, acclaimed poet and author Palabras de concienca en la voz de El Maestro
• Special Guests
• Solidarity Messages
• Music by: Zulu Nation DJ Spirit Child, BombaYo and The RBG Girlz

Room 333 Fordham Lowenstein

(Bring Your Own Coffee, etc.)

9:30 AM Special Film Presentation

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM: CLOSING PLENARY

• https://www.hiusa.org/find-hostels/new-york/new-york-891-amsterdam-ave
• https://www.chelseahostel.com/welcome
• https://ymcanyc.org/locations/west-side-ymca/guest-rooms

Carlton Arms Hotel is on 23rd St., 80 bucks a night, and super-cool place

Airbnb.com  ( Currently private rooms in NY throughout 5 boroughs, ranging from $60-$350. Apartments in NY are available for $250+,  Cheaper in parts of Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Manhattan usually higher.

Cheap Hotel rooms:

Trivago.com Many good deals- Wyndham New Yorker - $139 - Square Hotel at Times Square - $142, Hotel Edison $165, Hotel Newton $118, Hampton Inn Manhattan- Times Square- $150, The Manhattan at Times Sq $142,