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Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags. For a chance to be featured, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project.
The goal of #WHPframeit was to find expected frames that create borders around your subjects. Each week, we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest here.
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To hear of Alex’s music, check out @iamalexcuba on Instagram. For more music stories, head to @music.
“There’s a lot of power in simplicity.”
Such is the philosophy of Cuban-born, Canadian singer-songwriter Alex Cuba (@iamalexcuba) –– though that hasn’t always been the case. “At the beginning, I wanted to bring windows down with my music,” he says. “I’ve realized that the other side is as powerful, if not more powerful.”
Alex learned to play music as a child in the town of Artemisa, about an hour north of Havana. His father was a guitar teacher at a cultural center across the street from their home. After school, Alex would spend afternoons listening to people play. He soon began recording on his own, infusing his work with poetry and messages of peace. His songs, which he sings mostly in Spanish but sometimes in English, often touch on the power of love and always portray his excitement about music as a medium.
“I write a song and I can’t wait; I just do a little clip and put it on social media,” he says, about the intimate solo videos he shares with fans. “I don’t like to feel any disconnection between the way that I give my art and music to people and how they see me.”
Alex recently brought that message of honesty and self-confidence to struggling songwriters in his home country, as part of an upcoming documentary The Cuban Bus. There he found Cuba in the midst of a transition, one he hopes will free his people from economic oppression. Now more than ever, Alex says, it’s important to encourage the country’s strong cultural traditions.
“One thing that you can see in musicians right away is that when we were asking them to play a song, they were playing what they thought we wanted to hear,” he says. “They go into this survival mode of catering for tourists or whatever, and I’m like, ‘No, no. Play me the song you hate of yours, the one you hate the most, the one you think is not a good one. I want to hear that one.’ And it was often the best one.”
Just as Cubans fight to keep their traditions alive, Alex is working to open doors for Spanish-speaking musicians in his current home of Canada, as well as the United States. He was recently honored as the only Latin artist to participate in Canada’s annual JUNO Songwriters’ Circle. He also just wrapped a North American tour and is about ready to get back in the studio, perhaps for an acoustic album — and more in the vein of his little clips.
“A lot of artists are afraid of [playing acoustic], because that is complete nakedness,” he says. “I know that I’m taking the road less traveled at this moment in time, but it’s rewarding. I feel complete, I feel aligned with my spirit and that is the most beautiful thing for a human being. It’s the only way to exist.”
––Kat Bein for Instagram @music
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For more scenes from Cuba, be sure to follow @cubareporter as well as @khaversiddiqi and @low843 who are also in the country.
CNN International correspondent Patrick Oppmann (@cubareporter) has lived in Cuba for over two years with his wife and two children. Patrick shares scenes of daily life in Havana on Instagram, opening up a window into a part of the world many long to see and visit. "While the government lifted a ban on cell phones in 2008, Cubans do not have access to 3G networks and smart phones are an impossible expense in a country where most people make $20 a month. And, because of the US travel ban, Cuba is still off-limits to most Americans," Patrick explains. "I feel particularly fortunate that I have been able to see so much of the island and report from here during a time when Cuba is undergoing long-awaited economic reforms."
Patrick's photos and videos document a city in the midst of change. "Havana is a strikingly beautiful city that has seen better days. Due to neglect and the punishing climate, much of the city has the appearance of a sunken ship. Architects estimate that every day several historic buildings collapse, so there is a sense of racing against time to photograph places that will soon disappear." One of Patrick's favorite places to photograph is the Malecón seawall that protects the city. "It has been called the largest sofa in the world and each day thousands of Cubans take to the wall to take a seat, share a bottle of rum, play music or just cool off from the stifling heat." He also loves shooting street scenes: "Havana is a very spontaneous city and I always try and have a camera at the ready. Some of my favorite photographs are of things I happened to catch out of the corner of my eye; a guy riding on a cart being pulled by a goat, a teenager with an anti-government slogan tattooed on his neck, a fading billboard celebrating the revolution or two boys practicing their boxing stances in the street."
Patrick's inspiration comes from the the responses to his photos and videos. "I read lots of comments from Americans who wish they could visit the incredible island that’s just 90 miles away. I also enjoy receiving comments from many Cubans who, because of politics or Cuba’s financial problems, have had to leave the island," he says. "They have written me to say that my photos provide a window to the homeland that they desperately miss. To have that kind of impact is both an extraordinary opportunity and privilege."