New York City Bands Tap into Colombian Music Fever

WNYC covers New York Colombian fusion music here and in the following slideshow.

Consejos comunitarios, Pacifico Colombiano by MINIKUSUTO

Short documentary on the territorial black communities of the Colombian Pacific/Pequeño documental sobre los territorios comunitarios del Pacífico

Consejos comunitarios, Pacifico Colombiano from MINIKUSUTO on Vimeo.

Fanaticism: The Uses of an Idea

Fanaticism: The Uses of an Idea September 28, 2010 5pm 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor A lecture by Alberto Toscano, exploring the critical role fanaticism plays in forming modern politics and the liberal state, and undermining the idea that liberalism and fanaticism are irrevocably opposed This event is free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Alberto Toscano is Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author ofThe Theatre of Production, translator of Alain Badiou's The Century and Logics of Worlds and co-editor of Alain Badiou's Theoretical Writings and On Beckett. His most recent book,Fanaticism: The Uses of An Idea, is published by Verso. Co-sponsored by the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication and the Humanities Initiative.

We are located at: 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor New York, NY 10003 Our telephone: (212) 998-2190 You may contact the Humanities Initiative with any other questions at res349@nyu.edu.

Dancing with the Legendary Cha-Cha Taps

Legacy Series

Dancing with the Legendary Cha-Cha Taps
Dancer Carlos Arroyo

Panel and Slide Show

Speakers: Carlos Arroyo, Carmen Frank , Elena Martínez
Curator: Pedro Juan Hernández

Friday, October 1, 6:00 p.m.
Faculty Dining Room, Hunter College, 8th floor, West Building

R.S.V.P.Rosalie Roman or call 212.772.5714

MERCEDES MONTAÑO ARAUJO: (1912-1999)

Este biografía de la página: http://historiapersonajesafro.blogspot.com

La reina del currulao, luchó por preservar la autenticidad de las danzas, especialmente del Pacífico nariñense, Es considerada la Madre del Folclor del Pacífico Colombiano. Nació el 24 de septiembre de 1912 en Tumaco. Sus padres Doña Jesús Araujo de raza blanca Nariñense y de Don Enrique Montaño: un negro indio del departamento del Cauca. Se casa en junio 22 de 1922 a los 14 años con Romelio Angulo Cuero un hombre negro de origen Caucano, de profesión Policía, con el que tiene sus tres hijas: Kerima que nace en 1925 en Tumaco y en Guapi (Cauca) nacen: Maura en 1932 y Dayda en 1936. Después que nace su tercera hija se trasladan a vivir a Buenaventura (Valle), donde comenzó su labor de divulgadora.
Más de dos generaciones de negros aprendieron a respetar su patrimonio musical bajo la férula de una maestra exigente, severa y perfeccionista. En los años cincuenta en compañía de Teofilo R. Potes inicio el grupo de Danzas del Litoral Pacífico y Organizaron e iniciaron una labor difícil que se consolidó posteriormente. Labor que fue impulsada con la ayuda de personas como Enrique Buenaventura. "El TEC le sirvió como un puente a través del cual Mercedes pudo divulgar su trabajo hacia el interior del país. Eso sucedió a finales de los 70 cuando este grupo se fija en la tradición oral del Pacífico".
Regresó luego a su grupo original de Danzas Folclóricas Mercedes Montaño y con el recorrió todo el país. Fue la creadora del currulao tipo "Pango" y tipo "viejo bambuco", que en su concepto son la expresión más típica del negro del sur de Colombia.
Al final de su vida Mercedes sintió gran desilusión por el olvido de su folclor: "Creo que los jóvenes ya no bailan bien el currulao, les falta sentimiento. El currulao es un cortejo y como ahora ya es todo distinto, la gente ya ni sabe qué es eso, entonces no lo saben bailar", afirmó. Mercedes Montaño falleció el 24 de julio de 1999 en Cali, víctima de un cáncer de garganta, casi olvidada por las generaciones presentes pero atendida por algunos quienes fueron sus alumnos. Fue despedida en Buenaventura en medio de la música que tanto defendió. Acompañada con profundo dolor entre tantos: los ex alcaldes: los medicos Edgar Roberto Carabalí y Saulo Quiñones y el Ingeniero: Bernardino Abad Quiñones, igualmente su familia recibió de parte del Presidente Ernesto Samper Pizano condolencias.
Fue profesora de danzas en:
• El colegio Pascual de Andagoya (Buenaventura)
• Liceo Femenino del Pacífico (Buenaventura)
• Universidad del Valle (Cali)
• Universidad Nacional (Bogotá)
• Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá)
• En Bogotá formó el grupo de danzas de la Presidencia de la Reúblivca que aun se conserva.
Recibió innumerables reconocimientos entre los que destacamos: de la Gobernación del Valle, del Teatro Municipal de Cali: el Calima de Oro y el Ministerio de Educación le otorgó La Medalla Simón Bolívar.

Afrovenezuelan music and dance in Washington DC

Afrovenezuelan Excursion at the Smithsonian at Anacostia

A FREE multi-media lec-dem and performance featuring instructor and
anthropologist MESI WALTON, and JIM BYERS, host of WPFW 89.3 FM's LATIN
FLAVOR/Classic Edition! The audience will be treated to an in-depth
presentation about Afro-Venezuelan music and dance, and have an
opportunity to dance and learn from one of the DC area's leading
practitioners! The program is part of season two of last year's popular
"METRO MAMBO" Series! Due to LIMITED SPACE at the venue, RSVP's are
Required!!! Please RSVP by calling 202-633-4866.

also...

Sundays : Afro Venezuelan Dance Class
Joy of Motion Dance Studio-Atlas
11am-12pm
1333 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
$17 Drop-In (call to find out about discounts)
Tel: (202) 399-6763

Mondays: Afro Venezuelan Dance class
7pm-8pm
Joy of Motion Bethesda
Air Rights Building
7315 Wisconsin Ave., Ste. 180E
Bethesda, MD 20814
$17 drop-in

Bomba & Plena @ Hostos October 6-10

Check http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/culturearts/events.html for the full details

The Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture proudly presents the tenth anniversary ofBomPlenazo, its biennial celebration of bomba and plena, Puerto Rico's African-rooted music and dance traditions which remain living, breathing and growing expressions of Puerto Ricans on the island and in diaspora communities. BomPlenazo 2010 will focus on bomba and plena as they are practiced in communities in and around the town of Mayagüez on the West Coast of Puerto Rico.

The Hostos Center proudly dedicates BomPlenazo 2010 to Ángel Luis Torruellas, a native of Mayagüez, who is the undisputed dean of pleneros on both the island and the mainland.

Once again, the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture joins forces with Centro Cultural Rincón Criollo, our principal and esteemed community partner. Also contributing to this celebration are our friends at the Longwood @ Hostos Art Gallery/Bronx Council on the Arts. We also acknowledge the invaluable contributions of our Hostos Community College partners, the Humanities Department and the Office of International Study, which have collaborated in a Creative Campus Project linking the Center's programming to the College's curriculum.

Las Casitas and Inauguration of the Festival
An updated remounting of the legendary Casitas exhibition produced twenty years ago by the Bronx Council on the Arts. The exhibition opened at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., traveled to Chicago and closed at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 1991. This remounting will include elements of the original exhibition, as well as elements (photographs, found objects, video footage and musical instruments) reflecting the history of the legendaryCasita de Chema on Brooke Avenue in the Bronx which, for over 30 years, has served as an important forge and incubator of Puerto Rican culture in the Diaspora.

Pleneando con Los Instantáneos del Rincón Criollo
A community jam lead by the resident plena troupe from La Casita de Chema—plena as it was meant to be played and sung: street-corner style. Bring your instruments!

Los Tambores del Sarao ■ Segunda Quimbamba ■
Tito Cepeda y sus Estudiantes
Anthropoligist/writer Ramón López's group in a presentation opening the festival and honoring the legacy of Efraín Mon Rivera and Ángel Luis Torruellas with commentary by López himself – an ode to the two great pleneros from Mayagüez. ■ From New Jersey, the celebrated family-based bomba y plena ensemble directed by Juan Cartagena ■ Master bomba drummer Tito Cepeda is joined by vocalist Miriam Félix in a special program featuring many of the students Tito has mentored over the years.

Rumbacuembé ■ Alma Moyó
One of the most dynamic and innovative bomba and plena groups in the New York area under the direction of Alex LaSalle, native of the Mayagüez region ■ The powerhouse, multi-generational bomba and plena ensemble from the Moca/Mayagüez area under the direction of Ricky Soler, a rumbero originally from New York City who has instilled his rumba sensibilities to the troupe.

Yagüembé ■ Bambulá
Mayagüez's beloved bomba and plena group, representing several generations of virtuoso practitioners under the direction of the great drummer and dancer Don Papo Alers, whose family is paramount in the traditions ■The New York-based, all-woman bomba and plena troupe under the direction of Norka Nadal, scion of one of the great bomba families of Mayagüez who is joined by family members from Rumbacuembé.

Bomberos, Pleneros y BomPleneros
An afternoon of local and visiting groups, including Bombá-yó, José "Dr. Drum" Ortíz, director ■ Matthew y su Cumbalaya, Matthew González director ■ La Tribu de Juan Usera ■ And, direct from San Francisco, special guests Las Bomberas de la Bahía, the all-woman ensemble under the direction of Denise Solís.

Ángel Luis Torruellas ■ Los Pleneros de la 21 ■
Los Tambores de Félix Alduén
The dean of Puerto Rican pleneros accompanied by a special ensemble under the direction of virtuoso trombonist Papo Vázquez ■ One of the bomba and plena world's great treasures under the direction of National Heritage Fellow Juan Gutiérrez ■ Direct from Mayagüez, the young and dynamic plena ensemble named for the legendary Félix Alduén whose bomba and plena troupe was an incubator for many great practitioners from the region, José "Macho" Millán (grandson of Don Félix), director.

Vente-tú (block party, pig roast and jam)
An afternoon of jamming and continuous performances with all the participants at the revered Casita de Chema on Brook Ave. And 157 St. in the Bronx.

Dancing Bomba
Oct 6, 7, 8 (W, Th, F), 5:30 – 7pm. Dance studio.
Norka Nadal, musical director of Bambulá, will conduct this workshop with her cousin,
Liz Saira Díaz Nadal, a member of the Rumbacuembé ensemble from Mayagüez.

The Art of Maskmaking
Oct 7 (Th), 5:30 pm. Hostos Art Gallery/Project Room
Benny Ayala offers a hands-on workshop on the Ponce style of vejigante mask-making. Appropriate for adults and children 8 and above.

Percussion Instruments
Oct 7 (Th), 5:30 pm. Hostos Art Gallery
Artisan José "Chema" Soto and master bomba and plena practitioner José Riverafrom Los Pleneros de la 21 demonstrate the construction of barriles of bomba andpanderos of plena. (A selection of plena made by Chema are on display in the Longwood@Hostos Gallery.)

Los Pleneros de la 21 present Rumbacuembé…In the House
Oct 8 (F), 10am and 12pm (Venue to be announced)
Los Pleneros de la 21's children's series featuring the young bomba and plenapractitioners in Rumbacuembé (See Thurs pm concert), in an interactive lecture/demonstration for school children. Adm: $5. Reservations required. For info, call 212-427-5221, nellietanco@aol.com

Béisbol and Plena: A Film Showing
Oct 8 (F), 5:30 p.m. Hostos Art Gallery
A showing of Los Indios de mi pueblo, a widely acclaimed documentary concieved and written by Roberto Mercado, which explores the relationship between professional baseball in Mayagüez and plena. Many of the great Puerto Rican players have been accomplished pleneros, including the legendary Mon Rivera.

La Casita Speaks Out
Oct 9 (S), 5:00 p.m. Hostos Art Gallery
Founding members and veterans of Centro Cultural Rincón Criollo (La Casita de Chema) speak out during a panel discussion on the history of La Casita and the role it has played in maintaining Afro-Puerto Rican culture in New York City. Participants will include José "Chema" Soto, Doris Asencio, Alex LaSalle, José Rivera, Norma Cruz and others. Discussion will be moderated by radio personality Felipito Palacios

RIP Max Salazar

A New York original: Latin music DJ, journalist, and connoisseur.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2010/09/20/129992447/max-salazar-requiem-for-a-historian-journalist-and-fan

SALIÓ LA POLICIA ANTINARCOTICOS DEL HOTEL RIO GUAPI

SALIÓ LA POLICIA ANTINARCOTICOS DEL HOTEL RIO GUAPI, LO QUE REDUCE RIESGOS ENTRE OTROS A NIÑOS MARGINADOS.

La regional COCOCAUCA informa que en el municipio de Guapi – Cauca (costa pacífica), salieron del hotel Rio Guapi los policías antinarcóticos que se encontraban hospedados cerca de un año. Este hotel es emblemático ya que fue donado por la Fundación Levante en Marxa de España para el sostenimiento económico de niños marginados de la región.

La presencia permanente de los policías en el hotel, ponía en riesgo a la población que se hospedaba, a los vecinos y a la Regional COCOCAUCA cuya sede se encuentra al frente del Hotel Rio Guapi. Se recuerda que el 7 de diciembre de 2009 a las 11pm explotó una granada lanzada al parecer por unos extraños supuestamente contra un Policía que se encontraba de guardia al frente del Hotel Rio Guapi. Como resultado del Hecho, una niña de 2 años y su joven madre de 20 años murieron, un policía herido de gravedad y un grupo más de 10 personas afectadas.

El hecho de su salida obedece a múltiples factores entre los cuales vale mencionar a un grupo de Intelectuales internacionales desde la universidad de Glasgow en Escocia, que puso a circular el 22 de mayo de 2010 (día internacional de la biodiversidad), un oficio de protesta exigiendo al gobierno colombiano PARO INMEDIATO de las fumigaciones en la costa pacífica del Cauca ya que era “un crimen contra la humanidad y la biodiversidad”. De igual manera se pronunciaron preocupados por la presencia permanente de la policía antinarcóticos en el emblemático Hotel rio Guapi.

Pero el tema sigue vigente, y no se puede confiar en su retorno por el hecho de que levantaron los tanques y bombas de almacenamiento de los químicos que tenían en el aeropuerto Juan Casiano Solís de Guapi, por eso estamos atentos y expectantes con el gobierno de Santos en materia de políticas antinarcóticos.

Al grupo de intelectuales y todas las personas que se han solidarizado con nuestra causa de reafirmación de derechos étnicos, y de alguna manera están contribuyendo en garantizar nuestra permanencia en nuestros territorios colectivos étnicos, le agradecemos en nuestra forma tradicional con base en el legado ancestral de los mayores.

Guapi – Cauca, 17 de septiembre de 2010

Comunicaciones COCOCAUCA

CFP: EMP Pop Conference at UCLA

Cash Rules Everything Around Me: Music and Money
2011 EMP Pop Conference at UCLA
Feb 24 – 27, 2011
Los Angeles, California
Jointly sponsored by Experience Music Project and the UCLA Department of Musicology

“The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees, I need money!” Motown founder Berry Gordy co-wrote it, Barrett Strong sang it, and John Lennon’s vocal in the Beatles cover offered a fervent affirmation. By the time Wu-Tang Clan recorded “C.R.E.A.M.,” however, chasing bucks in pop found kinship more with high stakes gundowns and teens behind bars. For this year’s Pop Conference, the tenth annual meeting and first outside of Seattle, we invite presentations on a matter Los Angeles knows well: the relationship between song and paycheck – or, to invoke the O’Jays hit “For the Love of Money,” bass line and bottom line.

Topics can cover any era or style of music and may include, but are not limited to:

-Selling out: self-objectification and compromise, but also selling out as breaking out-- codebreaking and innovation
-- The music industry, past, present, and (?) future, from records to radio and retail; impresarios in idolatry; the current slump and pop through boom and bust, affluence and scarcity
--Money, bling, “Life in the Fast Lane,” etc. as a topic in song and discourse: how different genres view commercialism differently; charity and social consciousness as rival impulses
--Class as operating force; profitable music and blurred hierarchy, the working class and “Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’”-- how class-bound assumptions affect musical valuation
--Los Angeles in the pop imaginary, a place that has never pretended music is a solely artistic enterprise
--“Capital (It Fails Us Now)”: payola blues, the pervasive sense of the business as (to quote Hunter S. Thompson) a “long shallow money trench” and distillation of capitalism’s inequities
--Globalization and monetization: pop as international product, differing national and regional approaches to music merchandising
--Patronage: sponsorships, institutions as support structures for pop, music in advertising
--Financing musical production: the aesthetics of hi-fi -- as David & David once sang, “all that money makes such a succulent sound”

The EMP Pop Conference, launched in 2002, joins academics, critics, performers, and dedicated fans in a rare common discussion. The conference is jointly sponsored in 2011 by the Department of Musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and by the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. This year’s program committee members are: Jasen Emmons (EMP/SFM), Robert Fink (UCLA), Gaye Theresa Johnson (UCSB), writer Maura Johnston, Josh Kun (USC), Katherine Meizel (Oberlin), filmmaker Jim Mendiola, Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times), writer-musician Tim Quirk, Jeffrey Rabhan (NYU), and biographer David Ritz.

Please send proposals of 250 words, with 50 word bio, to Eric Weisbard (University of Alabama): Eric.Weisbard at gmail.com. Deadline for proposals is Friday, October 15. Panel proposals, specifying either 90 minutes 120, should include both overview language and individual proposals/ bios, or overview and bios only for roundtable discussions. We welcome unorthodox proposals and proposals aimed explicitly at a general interest audience. Registration is free for presenters and the public. For more information, go to http://www.empsfm.org/education/

Soca singer Arrow has died

Alphonsus Cassel - Arrow, here singing "Soca Rumba," has died
Arrow - special soca rumba

NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference: Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions

NY Folklore Society Graduate Student Conference
Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions

November 20, 2010
New York University
New York, NY 10012
Call for Proposals


For over 65 years, the New York Folklore Society (NYFS) has held an annual conference, typically with guest speakers, such as master artists and academic scholars, who have addressed a particular theme. This year, in collaboration with NYU’s Latino Studies and Latin American Studies Departments, we invite graduate students to present their work on Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions. In this way, students will be given a platform at a local conference to share their work and connect with other young academics from around the state. The NYFS seeks to encourage young scholars to continue their studies and become active contributors to the fields of folklore, ethnomusicology, anthropology and more.

Theme: Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions
A cumbia group belting-out Colombian tunes at an outdoor cumbiamba, a Peruvian curandero diagnosing a patient through the use of animals, a Mexican family building a Diá de los Muertos altar in their home, a décima verse sung by a Puerto Rican jibaro—all of these are examples of Latino Expressive Traditions. While some of these forms have roots in African traditions and others have roots in Indigenous traditions, all are considered Latino Expressive Traditions or Folk Arts. These traditions speak to what Latinos say, believe, make, know and do---things that they first learned from their families and community.

The length and breadth of Latino traditions literally covers two continents; and transnational migration to major US cities such as Miami, Chicago, San Antonio, Newark and New York have ensured that the impact of Latino culture continues to be profound. We support papers which explore the topic of Latino Expressive Traditions from both the homeland perspective and immigrant perspective. We particularly encourage papers that address Latino traditions in New York’s tri-state area.

Students can cover any number of topics related to traditional performing arts, materials arts, vernacular culture, sacred arts, etc. as long as the research is with a particular Latino group. While attendees should be graduate students from any academic program; they do not have to major in folklore or Latino studies. Participants can be ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, historians, etc.

Questions? Please contact: Dr. Ellen McHale, nyfs@nyfolklore.org, 518-346-7008

Bullerenguera Petrona Martínez habla de sus "penas alegres"

http://escribedavid.blogspot.com/2010/09/las-penas-alegres.html

Angela Davis in/en Colombia

Angela Davis



Programación
Lunes 13 de septiembre
Homenaje cultural a Angela Davis
Lugar: Camarín del Carmen
Hora: 5:00 p.m.
Entrada con invitación

Jueves 16 de septiembre
Conferencia Magistral: “Racismo de Estado y complejo industrial de las prisiones”
A cargo de Angela Davis
Lugar: Auditorio León de Greiff. Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Hora: 5:00 p.m.

Viernes 17 de septiembre
Conferencia Magistral: “Dilemas conceptuales en el Black Feminism”
A cargo de Gina Dent
Lugar: Auditorio León de Greiff. Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Hora: 5:00 p.m.

Las conferencias son de entrada gratuita, pero se requiere inscripción previa.

Las inscripciones pueden realizarse enviando los datos personales (nombre, número de documento de identidad, teléfono y ocupación) al correo: andavis.unal@gmail.com

Mayores informes:
Escuela de Estudios de Género. Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Teléfonos: 316 5219 - 316 5000 Ext. 10403, 10404, 10417 y 10397