I am working on a novel, provisionally called Fidel Castro: My New Boyfriend, building upon the character of GG who appears in Murder in the Climate Assembly as a music lecturer who only produces miserable music. She is sent to Cuba in the hope she’ll be inspired by the more cheerful salsa music, but instead is taken over by the spirit of Fidel Castro who wants her to make a musical of his life.
The genre is magical realism, but the story is based on a real-life Fidel the Musical project.
You can see a 5 minute video of the project here.
The musical and the book (also written as a TV series) build on my research on Cuba:
- The leadership style of Fidel Castro: a decolonial perspective, Denise Baden, Naveena Prakasam & Stephen Wilkinson, 2024, Bulletin of Latin American Research, DOI: 10.1111/blar.13620
- Cuban exceptionalism and leader succession, Denise Baden, Naveena Prakasam & Stephen Wilkinson, 2023, International Journal of Cuban Studies, 15(1), 71-88, DOI: 10.13169/intejcubastud.15.1.007
- Corporate Social Responsibility Cuban style, Denise Baden & Stephen Wilkinson, 2021
- Towards ecological public health? Cuba’s moral economy of food and agriculture, M. Wilson, Denise Baden & Stephen Wilkinson, 2020, Third World Quarterly, 41(11), 1793-1808, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2020.1787825
- Contrasting leadership styles of Fidel and Raúl Castro, Denise Baden & Steve Wilkinson, 2018
- On Western bias against Cuba, Denise Baden, 2017, International Journal of Cuban Studies, 9(1), 16-18, DOI: 10.13169/intejcubastud.9.1.0016
- Our musical ‘Fidel’ will try to puncture the polarised debate about Castro, Denise Baden, 2016, The Conversation.
- Fidel’ A musical by the people for the people. A reflection on a process of musical development based on crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and audience participation.
- Denise Baden, 2016
- What the US can learn from Cuba during Obama’s historic visit, Denise Baden, 2016, The Conversation
- Ethics in Pharma: a case study from Cuba, D. Baden, S. Wilkinson & C. Davis, 2015
- Socially responsible enterprise in Cuba: a positive role model for CSR?, D. Baden & S. Wilkinson, 2014, International Journal of Cuban Studies, 6(1), 55-86
