The Instituto Cervantes in Manchester invites you to an evening of poetry and jazz with the presentation of the book Las cataratas de Nelson by the Spanish poet Ignacio Cartagena in a conversation between the author and Principal Teaching Fellow at University of Leeds Antonio Martínez-Arboleda, will be accompanied by live jazz music by the Mancunian band The Grant Russell Quartet.

Las cataratas de Nelson tells the poetic story of Arturo, a civil servant in an international organisation, father, husband and collector of Blue Note vinyl records. Having reached maturity and one or two steps away from decline, Arturo witnesses, for no apparent reason, the dissolution of many of his convictions, illusions and certainties. A book in which Ignacio Cartagena resorts to narrative elements to offer a human type of a liquid era, a character in search of an author. A man trying to escape from where he thinks he is: right in the middle of nowhere.

About the participants:

Ignacio Cartagena Núñez es diplomático, doctor en derecho internacional, profesor honorario de la Universidad de Alicante y en la actualidad está destinado en Escocia como Cónsul General de España en Edimburgo. Ha publicado ocho libros de poesía y algunos de sus poemas han sido traducidos al italiano y al inglés. Algunos de sus títulos más recientes son: Las Cataratas de Nelson, Ars Poetica, Oviedo, diciembre de 2021; Los últimos días de Plinio el Viejo, ed. Ars Poetica, Oviedo, diciembre de 2019; El ocio que nos queda, ed. Sial, Madrid, julio de 2017; Urnas, ánforas, vasijas, ed. Sial, Madrid, marzo 2014 y Románico Tardío, ed. Aguaclara, Alicante, diciembre 2012.

Antonio Martínez-Arboleda is Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at the University of Leeds. He is also the Academic Lead for Open Educational Practice of the University of Leeds and Co-Director of its Centre for Research in Digital Education. He has published articles on critical digital pedagogies and teaches on a variety of subjects including Spanish language and politics, and education. He is also a poet and translator. As a cultural activist, he directs the international university translation project La Crátera de Ártemis and the Poetry group Transforming with Poetry. He is the delegate in Great Britain of Revista Crátera.

The Grant Russell Quartet was formed in 2013, and features four of the most dynamic performers in the Uk. Raw, uncompromising jazz with an aggressive commitment to improvisation-led music within the traditional framework of strong tunes, both original and standard. However there is nothing standard about thIs quartet. Whilst still working from a traditional approach to jazz performance all the performers have worked at the highest international level in a plethora of genres and bring all that experience to every tune. The sum is definitely greater than the parts.