On January 23 and 24, 2024, Hay Festival comes to MAMM!
The event that brings together writers, intellectuals, journalists, researchers, musicians, and opinion leaders to reflect on and imagine a better world returns to Colombia. The next edition of Hay Festival Medellin will be held on January 23 and 24, with the Museum as the main venue. All events are free admission and open to all audiences, with the purpose of letting the imagination soar, awakening curiosity, and seeing new ideas flourish.
Hay Festival Medellin Programming
Tuesday, January 23
Why I opened a bookstore, why open a bookstore
9:30 a.m. / Bodega Comfama
Free event with prior registration
Booksellers from various generations discuss the reasons that drove them to open a bookstore, an entrepreneurial venture. Participants include Gloria Melo (Al pie de la Letra bookstore, Medellin), Rodnei Casares (Itaca bookstore, Medellin), and Paco Goyanes (Calamo bookstore, Zaragoza, Spain).
Anagrama Editorial: boredom is forbidden
11:00 a.m. / Bodega Comfama
Free event with prior registration
Since its founding in 1969 by Jorge Herralde in Barcelona, Anagrama Editorial has distinguished itself by its commitment to quality and its Latin American perspective. Diego Aristizabal converses about its past, present, and future with Silvia Sese, its editorial director.
Selva Almada and Nona Fernandez in conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo
3:45 p.m. / Teatro MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
In 2023, Hay Festival partnered with international organizations to create two anthologies that invite us to think about the world we currently inhabit in light of the complex history that has shaped us. In partnership with the British Museum, Explorers, Dreamers and Thieves was created, in which six narrators immersed themselves in the Museum’s collections to bring to the surface a fresh compilation of texts that question and reimagine predominant narratives. Together with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), the project Shared Truths was developed, which, through the pen of ten Latin American figures, imagines and narrates Colombia after the peace process. Selva Almada (Argentina), participant in the British Museum book, and Nona Fernandez (Chile), participant in Shared Truths, will converse with Ana Cristina Restrepo about these two projects.
Eliane Brum in conversation with Carolina Sanin Acevedo
5:45 p.m. / Teatro MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Simultaneous translation from Portuguese to Spanish will be provided
Award-winning journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker, Eliane Brum (Brazil) lives and works from Altamira, in the Amazon rainforest. She has received some 40 journalism awards. She writes for the newspaper El Pais and is the author of The Amazon: Journey to the Center of the World (2024), a work in which she narrates her transition from Sao Paulo to Altamira, a city marked by the construction of one of the largest (and most ecologically devastating) dams in the world. A work that bears witness to the negligence and corruption that is altering the Amazonian territory. In conversation with Carolina Sanin Acevedo.
Javier Moro in conversation with Alfonso Buitrago
7:15 p.m. / Plazoleta MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
The celebrated Spanish author converses with Alfonso Buitrago about his most recent books. Javier Moro, one of the most widely read contemporary writers in Spanish, is also a journalist and writer and has worked as a screenwriter and film producer in Hollywood. Among his books are Senderos de libertad (1992), El pie de Jaipur (1995), Las montanas de Buda (1997), Era medianoche en Bhopal (2001, co-written with Dominique Lapierre), Pasion india (2005), El sari rojo (2008), El imperio eres tu (Premio Planeta 2011), and the most recent Nos quieren muertos, about which he will tell us in this talk. In this rigorous and moving book, Moro brings us closer to the life of a key figure for understanding today’s Venezuela: Leopoldo Lopez. After being imprisoned in 2014, following his leadership of the largest protests against the government of Nicolas Maduro, Lopez became a symbol of the fight for democracy in the country.
Irene Sola in conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo
8:30 p.m. / Plazoleta MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Irene Sola (Spain) is the author of the publishing phenomenon Canto yo y la montana baila (2019), originally written in Catalan, translated into at least twenty languages, with fifteen editions in circulation, and winner of the Calamo 2019 prize and the European Prize for Fiction 2020. In her new book, Te di ojos y miraste las tinieblas, she portrays a world full of sorceresses, ghosts, beasts, and demons, and a group of women gathered around the deathbed of the most contemporary among them. Together, they reconstruct more than three hundred years of history. In conversation with Ana Cristina Restrepo.
Wednesday, January 24
Master class with Marisol Schulz
2:30 to 4:30 p.m. / Bodega Comfama
Free event with prior registration
As universal as the city in which she was born, Mexico City, Marisol Schulz is one of the most prominent figures in the Latin American book world. After an important career as an editor, in 2011 she assumed the directorship of the Spanish Language Book Fair of Los Angeles (LeaLA), and since 2013 she has been the director of the Guadalajara Book Fair. She will offer a master class open to the public interested in the publishing sector and the book ecosystem.
Gabi Martinez and Eduardo Romero Garcia in conversation with Luz Helena Oviedo
3:45 p.m. / Teatro MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Writer and environmental activist Gabi Martinez (Spain) is the author of nine books, including novels and works of nonfiction. He is director of the Liternatura Festival, winner of the Serondaya 2022 prize, founding member of the Caravana Negra Association in defense of culture and nature, of the Urban and Territorial Ecology Foundation, and co-director of the Invisible Animals project. His most recent book is Delta, a work that seeks to make visible the reality of the Ebro delta, which for years has accelerated its regression: the sea advances at a rate of about ten meters per year. Eduardo Romero Garcia narrates a powerful story that interweaves the lives of an elderly man in Asturias (Spain) who was once a miner, of Afro-Colombian women who arrive in Europe, and of a group of Colombian migrants who flee the country and at their destination encounter the ships that transport coal from La Guajira to a Spanish port. In conversation with Luz Helena Oviedo.
Alberto Vergara in conversation with Claudia Restrepo
5:45 p.m. / Teatro MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Latin America is angry. Surveys show it, the succession of “social upheavals” in different countries confirms it, and a citizenry that votes without hope ratifies it. In the book Republicas defraudadas, Peruvian academic Alberto Vergara proposes that this discontent is due to the fact that Latin America is in a multiple stagnation: political, economic, and social, and he delves into the structural causes of that discontent, such as citizen insecurity, insufficient health and education services, economic factors, segregation, racism, and corruption, and uses elements of popular culture to exemplify or build his argument, such as the films Roma by Alfonso Cuaron and The Official Story by Luis Puenzo, or the songs of Caetano Veloso. Alberto will discuss these challenges in conversation with EAFIT University rector Claudia Restrepo.
Salvador Rueda in conversation with Gabi Martinez
7:15 p.m. / Plazoleta MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona since its creation in 2000, Salvador Rueda (Spain) is one of the most committed figures to the important duty of promoting environmentally responsible projects, particularly in urban spaces. He holds degrees in biology, psychology, environmental engineering, and energy management. He was part of the European Union’s expert group on Urban Environment between 1994 and 2000. In conversation with writer and activist Gabi Martinez (Spain), he will unpack the keys to generating strategic and sustainable urban models.
Boom Alakran Concert
7:15 p.m. / Bodega Comfama
Free event with prior registration
Boom Alakran, a hot tropical musical amalgam that, based on a deep knowledge of classic salsa, builds a bridge between world music and the modern urban genre. A daring and innovative proposal that invites people of diverse generations and audiences to dance and enjoy.
Alana S. Portero in conversation with Sara Jaramillo Klinkert
8:30 p.m. / Plazoleta MAMM
Free event until capacity is reached
Recognized by Spain’s Ministry of Equality for her contribution to the visibility of trans women, Alana S. Portero is a historian, writer, playwright, stage director, and LGBTIQ+ rights activist. She will talk about her first novel, La mala costumbre, which movingly and powerfully narrates the childhood and adolescence of a girl who grows up in a body she does not know how to inhabit. Set in the Madrid of the eighties and nineties, the text navigates between the unease and resentment provoked by a society that does not accept and violates what is different. In conversation with Sara Jaramillo Klinkert.
To learn about the biographies of participants in the different events, you can do so on the official event page by clicking here
To reach the Museum, you can use bus routes that travel along Av. Las Vegas, the Metro Industriales station, and the EnCicla system. Additionally, the Museum has a covered parking lot and in its surroundings offers a varied selection of restaurants and cafes to enjoy.