Did Trump Affect Cuba's Decision To Cancel Collaborative Show With The Bronx Museum

The National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana has -- for the present -- pulled out of a collaborative exibit with the Bronx Museum. The planned initiative called 'Wild Noise', opening February 17, was to include works from the Bronx Museum that traveled to its sister Havana institution in 2015, coupled with 60 works by Cuban artists coming from Havana to the Bronx.

The Bronx museum's executive director, Holly Block said: her Cuban counterparts at the National Museum did not say whether their hesitation stemmed from fears about possible diplomatic uncertainties under a Trump administration. “We didn’t get a no from them but we also didn’t get a final yes,” Ms. Block said. “So we decided that in good faith we’re going to do this exhibition instead.”

There is a high probability that the Cuban government is concerned about whether state-owned art works from Cuba could be endangered with a possibility looming of a seizure of them by the US federal government. Such an action might be taken to satisfy legal claims by Cuban Americans seeking payment for unsatisfied judicial claims connected to property confiscated in Cuba after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.

American Ballet Theatre's Misty Copeland Returns To Cuba As Cultural Ambassador

“It’s a great honor to be here,” Misty Copeland, the first Afro-American ballerina of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), said in the venue of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC). Copeland joined a group of U.S. personalities of culture, sports and the performing arts for a mid-November 2016 arrival in Cuba, after the renewal of diplomatic relations between both nations.

Misty Copeland is not the first figure of the ABT to come to the island, where cultural exchanges have been permitted for years. She was preceded by Cynthia Gregory, Ted Kivitt, Eleonor D’Antuono, Cynthia Harvey and other dancers. On Cuba reports on the decades long collaboration between American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Cuba.

Misty Copeland Covers Self December 2017

Misty Copeland Is 'Misty On Pointe' As Self Magazine Prepares To Close Its Print Publication AOC Body

Misty Copeland Is 'Misty On Pointe' in Self Magazine's December issue. Self's February 2017 issue represents the last print issue of the women's health, wellness and fitness publication. With the exception of special issues devoted to core topics important to readers, Self will move to a strictly digital platform, facing the reality that its print advertising pages were down 32% through October.

Related: Misty Copeland Is Promoted to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre in AOC Women In-Depth -- includes 60 Minutes Interview and multiple Copeland articles.

Read Misty Copeland's interview with Self.

AOC in Cuba

Tati Cotliar Wears Chanel Cruise In 'Cuba Libre' As Hotels In Havana Soak Up The Food Supply

Tati Cotliar Wears Chanel Cruise In 'Cuba Libre' By Chintoo For L'Officiel Malaysia

Last May Karl Lagerfeld put Chanel on the map as the first luxury house to hold a runway show in Havana, Cuba. The designer flew 700 guests and 45 models to Cuba for a weekend-long celebration of Cuban culture through the lens of Lagerfeld's romanticism. "This is all about my vision of Cuba," Lagerfeld told The Cut. "But of course, what do I know about Cuba? It is very childish, my idea."

New York Magazine's 'The Cut' wrote in-depth about Lagerfeld's arrival in Havana. The designer followed up in October 2016 with a cruise campaign featuring Mica Arganaraz and Stella Tennant. 

The impact of fashion and travel in Cuba has brought a mixed bag reality for its people. Due to the American embargo and poor government planning on the island, food shortages are worse than ever wrote the New York Times this week. Private restaurants now take priority over Cuba's citizens in the flow of scarce resources like green peppers, onions, cucumbers, garlic and even lettuce to hungry mouths. 

Cuba experienced a record arrival of 3.5 million tourists last year. 

While many Cubans have long been hardened to the reality of going without, never more than during what they call the “Special Period” after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new dynamic that has emerged in recent months threatens the nation’s future, experts warn.

“The government has consistently failed to invest properly in the agriculture sector,” said Juan Alejandro Triana, an economist at the University of Havana. “We don’t just have to feed 11 million people anymore. We have to feed more than 14 million.”

“In the next five years, if we don’t do something about it, food will become a national security issue here,” he added.

Related: Amid Grim Economic Forecasts. Cubans Fear a Return to Darker Times New York Times

Kate Bock In Cuba for Dazed Korea July 2016 By Remember When We Were Young

Kate Bock In Cuba for Dazed Korea July 2016 By Remember When We Were Young

Anais Mali Sizzles in 'Bienvenida Cuba', Lensed By Benny Horne For Vogue Spain March 2016

Anais Mali Sizzles in 'Bienvenida Cuba', Lensed By Benny Horne For Vogue Spain March 2016

UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

American Women Have No Idea How Far Behind We Are Our Pursuit of Gender Equality and Women's Rights

The lack of awareness among American women about our falling status made the greatest impression on the UN experts. "So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world," Raday said.

Interviewed about her 2011 book 'Flipside', Phyllis Schlafly, who led the crusade to derail the Equal Rights Amendment by tapping into conservative fears about liberating women with equal rights, said:

It is self evident that American women are the most fortunate women who ever lived and enjoy more freedoms and opportunities than are available in any other country. Armed with the right attitude, they have every opportunity for happiness and achievement. Women should stop feeling they are victims of the patriarchy, reject feminist myths, and follow the roadmap to success and happiness spelled out in ‘Flipside.’

In reality, US women have sunk to 28th place in the world, sandwiched between Mozambique and Cuba, in the latest 2015 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report. In the area of political empowerment, America ranks a pathetic 72 in the world, with extensive research confirming that the reason we are an even worse 81 on women in parliament -- our Congress -- (as opposed to women in managerial government position) is that we refuse to believe that women can legislate as effectively as men.

Adriana Lima & Joan Smalls Say 'Viva Cuba' In Alasdair McLellan Snaps For W Magazine September 2015

Adriana Lima & Joan Smalls Say 'Viva Cuba' In Alasdair McLellan Snaps For W Magazine September 2015

Achok Majak & Havana Locals Star In 'Cuba' Lensed By Mikael Jansson For Porter No 10 Fall 2015

Achok Majak & Havana Locals Star In ‘Cuba’ Lensed By Mikael Jansson For Porter No 10 Fall 2015

This is a wonderful editorial!

Adriana Mockovciakova In 'Cuba Sexy' By Federica Putelli For Grazia Italia February 25, 2015

Adriana Mockovciakova In ‘Cuba Sexy’ By Federica Putelli For Grazia Italia February 25, 2015

Steve Lyon's Pleasure State 2014 Lingerie Campaign From Havana, Cuba

Steve Lyon’s Pleasure State 2014 Lingerie Campaign From Havana, Cuba

Would Frantz Fanon Agree With Orville Lloyd Douglas & His Essay 'Why I Hate Being A Black Man'?

Would Frantz Fanon Agree With Orville Lloyd Douglas & His Essay ‘Why I Hate Being A Black Man’?

Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello Lens Jessica Stam in 'Soy Cuba' for Numéro #141 March 2013

Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello Lens Jessica Stam in ‘Soy Cuba’ for Numéro #141 March 2013

Elena Lomkova | Roberto D'Este | Grazia Italia No. 26 June 2012

Elena Lomkova | Roberto D'Este | Grazia Italia No. 26 June 2012

Kathryn Gustafson's Lurie Garden in Chicago | Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra in Cuba

Kathryn Gustafson’s Lurie Garden in Chicago | Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra in Cuba AOC Salon

Critics and curators say that Gustafson’s greatest contribution is the re-introduction of the human body to site design. She agrees: ‘For me, the form of the land and the form of the body come together somehow.” A former fashion student and 1970s design professional, critics maintain that the sensual draping of clothes has strongly influenced her landscape work.

Julia Johansen | John Akehurst | 'Cuba & Brasil' | Velvet Italia April 2011

Julia Johansen | John Akehurst | ‘Cuba & Brasil’ | Velvet Italia April 2011AOC Living

Marija Vujovic | Txema Yeste | 'Cuba Libre' | Marie Claire US May 2011

Marija Vujovic | Txema Yeste | ‘Cuba Libre’ | Marie Claire US May 2011