Summarizing the first week of the Haiti-Cuba Academic Residency Program of the Youth Art Fund (YAF) is not easy, to say the least. The extension and variety of the itinerary, masterfully fuses lectures and theoretical workshops on music and photography, with collateral activities that constitute a journey to the center of the roots.

In this way, multiple activities cover the three-week duration of an academic program in which Haitian students exchange experiences, knowledge, and cultural interests with their Cuban counterparts in the fields of music and photography.

The first cycle of conferences was led by renowned Cuban professionals such as Anabel Letusé, solfeggio teacher, and Claudia Fallarero, musicologist in charge of the conference History of Music.

Nahela Hechavarría, Cuban art critic, specialist, and curator of Casa de las Americas' Plastic Arts Department, talked with the participants about Latin American and Caribbean photography.

Caridad Diez, musicologist, music producer, and cultural manager, was in charge of the Illustrated Lecture on Cuban Music, as an introduction to the agenda of complementary activities.

Where the arts merge with the idiosyncrasy and culture of the Caribbean, and where there are no language barriers or geographic borders. Where dance and song have given us emotions that are almost impossible to describe, culture has once again been revealed to us as a vehicle for the integral development of artists and people in general.

The photography students enjoyed a guided tour of the YAF's Salón Blanco Gallery, where the photographic exhibition Habana, un alma palpable (Havana, a Palpable Soul), is still on display. They also visited the Villa Soberón studio workshop and exchanged with young Cuban sculptors.

In this first week, we also visited the Church of Nuestra Señora de Regla, located in the Regla municipality.

The event was an opportunity for the academic residents not only to learn about the curious and colorful history of the town but also to delve into its customs, amidst the drumming and dancing that the members of the group Los Güiros de San Cristóbal offered on their terrace in Regla.

In addition, the night came at the hands of Osdalgia, and its Ruta del Feeling at the Boulevard de San Rafael. A meeting turned into the most informal, diverse, and exciting musical jam.

And to close with a flourish, during the meeting with the organization Misterios del Vudú de Haití in Cuba, in their Temple House in the town of San Francisco de Paula, we merged in that union of songs, flavors, and colors, inherited from the emigration and syncretism of yesteryear.

For the YAF, promoting this type of initiative is transcendental, not only in promoting the work of young creators but also in its work to safeguard heritage legacies in the face of the challenges of the globalized world.