A Sea Without Shores: Voices Beyond Borders

A Sea Without Shores: Voices Beyond Borders is a Cuban Canadian festival celebrating Afro-Cuban, Afro-Canadian, Indigenous, and Latin American voices through theatre, spoken word, and multimedia. It explores identity, resilience, and social justice while fostering dialogue and collaboration across Calgary and beyond.

The festival runs at SpanicArts, Calgary, May 21–24, 2026, aligned with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (May 21). Programming includes dramatic readings, multidisciplinary performances, lectures, workshops, spoken word, and open mics. Highlights include The Great Race by Hebert Poll Gutiérrez, In the Abroad by Sam Kugbiyi, and Black Threads: A Journey Through Time in Verse by Wakefield Brewster. Cuban plays will be read by Canadian actors of diverse backgrounds, sparking cross-cultural exchange.

Pre-Development Phase (Jan 12 – Mar 12, 2026): Planning, programming, artist confirmation, technical prep, and early audience engagement.

Marketing Campaign (Mar 16 – May 18, 2026): Led by SpanicArts, promoting the festival through social media, digital ads, newsletters, media, and community partnerships to attract diverse audiences for both in-person and online participation.

Community engagement includes youth workshops, open mics, and collaborative storytelling. Azimuth Theatre (Edmonton) will host monthly 40-minute online multidisciplinary events from June–September 2026, marking Nelson Mandela Day, the International Day for People of African Descent, and Alberta Culture Days, ensuring broad accessibility.

The festival supports mentorship and collaboration between Cuban and Canadian artists. Partnerships with SpanicArts, Storytellers of Canada, Playwrights Guild of Canada, Alberta Playwrights’ Network, Calgary Arts Development Authority, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts provide technical and outreach support.

Expected attendance is 1,500 in-person and 1,500–2,000 online. Through this festival, Calgary demonstrates leadership in cultural inclusion, showing how art bridges communities, amplifies underrepresented voices, and inspires social change.

This festival  will benefit artists, audiences, and the broader Calgary community by creating a vibrant space where cultures meet, stories are exchanged, and identities are celebrated.

For artists—especially Cuban, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Canadian, Indigenous, and Latin American creators—this festival offers a platform to be seen and heard. Many of these artists belong to immigrant or historically marginalized communities whose voices are too often overlooked. The festival provides professional opportunities, expands networks, and validates the richness of their contributions to Canadian culture.

Audiences benefit through access to performances that reflect a wide range of lived realities. Dramatic readings of Cuban plays by Canadian actors from diverse cultural backgrounds make the stories resonate across communities, showing how universal human struggles—love, justice, freedom—gain new power when interpreted through different cultural lenses. This not only enriches the performances but also deepens intercultural understanding.

Youth and emerging artists also stand to gain. Through workshops, open mics, and mentorship activities, they are invited to develop their skills, find their voices, and experience art as a tool for self-expression and community building. These opportunities strengthen belonging, empower new generations of storytellers, and build bridges across age and experience.

Educators, cultural workers, and community organizations benefit by gaining new resources and models for using the arts to address racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ2+ rights, and freedom of expression.

In the end, this project benefits all of Calgary. It creates a city where difference is celebrated as strength, where art sparks dialogue across cultures, and where every voice—no matter its origin—can shape the collective story of who we are and who we can become together.