Since the unofficial end of the economic crisis formally known as “The Special Period in Times of Peace,” Cuba has undergone marked social, economic, and structural transformations that have impacted the conditions of literary and artistic production on the island. On the one hand, while the Special Period witnessed what literary scholar Esther Whitfield has described as the new “Boom” of Cuban literature (especially the novel), there has been a discernible shift away from prose fiction (and the book form) and toward other counter-expressive forms such visual and audiovisual art, performance, and digital media. On the other hand, the rules of what counts as literature and “art” in Cuba have tightened under new laws. Moreover, in the last three years, the island has experienced mass migration of Cuban citizens—nearing 500,000, a number that exceeds the Mariel exodus of 1980. If Cuba’s social history is a strong indicator of its aesthetic currents, such a significant demographic shift will radically reshape the ecology of Cuban literary and artistic production.

This two-day interdisciplinary symposium invites scholars in Cuban Studies to discuss and reflect on transformations and innovations in contemporary Cuban literature, culture, art, and media, from the period following the Cuban Revolution until the present. “Cuban Aesthetics in the After,” gestures to Cuba y el día después, a field-defining anthology of essays edited by Cuban writer Iván de la Nuez, who calls on Gen X and millennial Cuban writers and intellectuals to reimagine Cuban society in aftermath of a revolution that failed to birth the future promised to them. “Cuban Aesthetics in the ‘After’” is a provocation to think of the “after” as an aesthetic articulated and shaped by Cuban literature, visual culture, performance, and media within and beyond the space-time of the Cuban Revolution.