Join Pérez Art Museum Miami’s (PAMM) Caribbean Cultural Institute for a special film screening and conversation exploring the Cuban diaspora and the transformative power of dance. Filmmaker Tiffany Madera presents her documentary “Havana Habibi,” followed by an in-depth discussion on identity, gender, and diaspora.
Schedule
2:30–3:00pm Welcome and seating
3–4pm Film screening
4–4:30pm Conversation with panel
About Havana Habibi
In 2003, Tiffany Madera aka “Hanan,” flew to Havana to participate in an artistic exchange that led to the formation of Cuba’s first Arabic dance troupe—Grupo Aisha Al-Hanan. The troupe, founded by Hanan, was composed of eight women at the University of Havana’s history department. A live band of musicians shortly followed from Havana’s colorful and diverse music scene. Guided by Hanan, Grupo Aisha Al Hanan quickly gained notoriety around Cuba despite its departure from state- sanctioned culture and art models—a grassroots cultural movement ensued.
About Tiffany Madera
Since 2002, Miami-based artist Tiffany Madera has forged a groundbreaking career re-coding Egyptian Baladi dance as a tool for empowerment and social justice. A singular talent in front of and behind the camera, she is a visionary who embeds herself as both artist and producer, creating projects that collapse the boundaries between performance, ethnography, and lived experience.
Madera is renowned for her award-winning documentary “Havana Habibi,” a bold exploration of identity, gender, and diaspora through dance. Her body of work—including “Dancing My Mother’s Body” and the global Baladi Project—extends across Miami, the Caribbean, Latin America, and North Africa, weaving local stories into global dialogues about migration, womanhood, and power. Her projects often operate simultaneously as performance, cultural exchange, and social practice, generating spaces where art becomes a catalyst for transformation.
Madera offers a theory-based, community-inclusive, and Global South perspective to local placemaking through the production of films, workshops, exhibitions and multidisciplinary collaborations. Her expanded approach to the arts is nourished by her Afro-Chinese Cuban heritage, grounding her practice in ancestral memory and embodied knowledge.
Holding master’s degrees in Latin American and Caribbean studies (Florida International University) and performance studies (NYU Tisch), Madera integrates rigorous scholarship with impact-driven creativity. Her projects have garnered international recognition and significant institutional support, including a $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge award with a full matching grant from the Ware Foundation, along with numerous state, county, municipal, and national foundation awards. Through her films, performances, and leadership, Madera continues to shape the cultural landscape—bridging Miami to the world stage while reimagining the possibilities of art as social action.
