HAVANA, Cuba, 13 December 2011 — We’re in the second day, Production, of a Backpack Documentary Workshop at the Advanced Institute of Art, known by its Spanish acronym, ISA. The four-day workshop has been made possible by a grant from the Reynolds Foundation. The grant application was submitted by Eric Hershberg, director of American University’s […]
HAVANA, Cuba, 21 November 2011 — AU Abroad students and their Cuban contemporaries pose for a group picture during our recent visit to the Advanced Institute of International Relations in Havana. The Institute, known here as the Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales (ISRI) is Cuba’s premier institution for the study of foreign relations between Cuba […]
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 11 November 2011 – Students at a workshop run by the Office of the City Historian learn to replicate centuries-old metal decoration as part of an overall plan to restore the colonial-era city. I documented part of their training while working on a backpack journalism project here in Cuba. (Photo by Bill […]
HAVANA, Cuba, 8 November 2011 — I gave an afternoon presentation at the Havana headquarters of Prensa Latina, Cuba’s global wire service. Life is curious. When I worked for United Press International (UPI) in Mexico City some three decades ago, we subscribed to Prensa Latina as a key source of information about events in Cuba, […]
HAVANA, Cuba, 5 November 2011 – Students who attended the first-ever Backpack Journalism Workshop at the Jose Marti International Institute for Journalism pose for a group photo with their new diplomas, their talent and their unbridled enthusiasm. A few of the students unfortunately could not make this last day of the five-day event when we […]
OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 2 November 2011 — AU Abroad student Cristina Khan eyes a street vendor before making a picture of him and his Che Guevara tattoo. Cristina is one of a handful of AU students taking my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, the foundation of backpack journalism. (Photo by Bill Gentile.)