The Festival of the Greater South: Peoples in Motion, Living Cultures, was a celebration of the #OSCday with music, poetry, dance, fashion and live painting with artists from the countries of the South.
Yoda Abyssinia Cultural Band (Ethiopia), Ras Katwintseb (Trinidad and Tobago), Sydney Salmon (Ethiopia), Le Trio Joubran (Palestine), and Raúl Paz (Cuba) brought music and energy to the festival stage.
Maria Clara Sharupi (Ecuador), Chehem Watta (Djibouti) Tagel Seifu (Ethiopia), and Sek Norn (Cambodia), and Dr Koulsy Lamko, Technical Adviser to the Secretary-General for Heritage, Culture, and the Arts, recited words that echoed the beauty of nature and the resilience of the human spirit, in memory of Palestinian poets Abu Nada and Refaat Alareer.
The Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba performed the joy, the colours and the movements of the Cuban culture with their dances, and And design and fashion were present with Taline, a visionary Palestinian designer and founder of DesignsByTaline. Since 2005, her mission has been to empower Palestinian women through the preservation of their heritage craft of handmade embroidery.
