Concert & Symposium
Diáspora Negra - The African Legacy in Latin America
Saturday August 15, 2009
$18 adv. $20 dr. - Symposium: 6:45pm Performance: 8:30pm
For advance tickets click here.
Join us for a cultural & historical program that highlights the importance of the African Diaspora through music & dance in Latin America. Performances are preceded by a symposium lead by master musicians and dancers. Program made possible in part by a grant from ACTA. Saturday's show consists of: De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian; Ensemble Ballet Folklórico Mejicano, Afro-Mexican; Son Boricua-Hector Lugo/Shefali Shah, Afro-Puerto Rican; Sandy Perez y Su Lade, Afro-Cuban.
Diáspora Negra is a cultural and historical program that takes place over two days, Friday, Aug. 14 and Saturday, Aug. 15. It tells the passionate tale of African song and dance in Latin America.
According to project coordinator Gabriela Shiroma, “Diaspora Negra” will have the representation of eight countries from Latin American and the Caribbean. “It was conceived to integrate, unify, and educate the local Latin American community and general public about our cultural identity. The program emphasizes the importance of the African legacy in Latin America and how similar and how unique are the cultural expressions that unite us and that make us brothers and sisters,” says Shiroma.
The free pre-concert symposiums are conducted by folklorists, dancers, and noted artists with extensive knowledge of the traditional stories, music, and customs of their particular culture or community and its African influences.
The symposiums will be followed by evening performances that will demonstrate the music and dances from Latin America and the Caribbean. This program has been made possible in part by a grant from ACTA.
The performances are preceded by a free symposium lead by master musicians and dancers from 6:45 to 7:45pm; Performances begin at 8:30pm and are $18 adv., $20 door.
Friday's show: Jorge Alabe, Afro-Brazilian music & dance; De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian music & dance; Hanajpacha, Afro-Bolivian music, Cantuta, Afro-Bolivian dance; Son Tambor, Afro-Colombian dance; Antioquia, Afro-Colombian and West African rhythms and music.
Saturday's show: De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian music & dance; Ensemble Ballet Folklórico Mejicano, Afro-Mexican dances; La Mixta Criolla and Aguacero, Afro-Puerto Rican music & dance; Sandy Perez y Su Lade, Afro-Cuban music.
Artists:
Jorge Alabe, renowned Brazilian drummer and dancer specialized in samba percussion and in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition of candomblé. Jorge played with and directed some of the highest-level Brazilian samba groups of 1970s-80s, and brought his passion in the form of workshops to New Orleans and San Francisco, where he currently resides.
De Rompe y Raja, an Afro-Peruvian dance and music ensemble founded by Gabriela Shiroma and Pedro Rosales, dedicated to preserving and promoting traditions and culture from the coast of Peru, where the music and folklore of European, African, and Indigenous peoples intersect. The troupe has performed at numerous universities and festivals in many parts of the United States.
Hanajpacha, (the space after death in Aymara) is a Bay Area-based ensemble that performs the rich music of the Bolivian Andean mountains. With five members, renowned charango player Jose Luis Reynolds directs the group. Their array of Andean musical instruments includes the zampoñas, bamboo panpipes, quenas, flutes, and charango a ten-string popular string instrument.
Kantuta is a dance ensemble that performs the traditional dances of Bolivia. Kantuta is the name of a red yellow and green flower that populates the highlands of the Andes. One of the most popular dances is the Saya, the Afro-Bolivian’s signature drum music and dance widely known around Bolivia. Both children and adults dance the Saya, dressed in a combination of Aymara and African clothes and using only their voices and wood drums. Accompanied by homemade drums, women spin in their white Aymara-style skirts and petticoats. With a pastel blue shawl folded over their right arm and a black bowler hat in the other hand, the dancers sing about bringing their African roots and rhythms to Bolivia
Son Tambor, is a Bay Area-based dance ensemble that perform Afro-Colombian dances. The Black African presence in Colombia dates back to the colonial period. Afro Panamanians from the colonial period are also related to many of these Afro Colombians. Black African slaves began being imported by the Spaniards in the first decade of the 16th century. By the 1520s, Blacks were being imported into Colombia steadily to replace the rapidly declining Native American population.
The rich Afro-Colombian culture and folklore include dances such as the Fiesta in Palenque a traditional dance from San Basilio de Palenque, a former enclave of escaped slaves; the Jota Chocoana, a dance from the colonial era in which African descendants satirize the salon dances of the ruling Spanish class will be performed: and the Mapalé, a dance original of the culture of the Sfukers. African slaves bought by the Spanish from Guinea introduced this dance in Colombia. The dance represents an erotic courtship between a male and female couple characterized by its frenetic acts towards each other. The couple dances to a fast rhythm of cumbia music also originally of the African slave in Colombia.
Antioquia. What distinguishes Antioquia from other genre bending acts are the traditional rhythms that permeate their sound, from the Afro-Colombian garabato and puya to an array of West African dunun rhythms. This socially conscious quartet of three men and a lady create churning cauldrons of groove. The driving pulse of the tamboras, the hard swish of the maracas, the screaming guitar and funky slap bass, create the sound that can only be described as Antioquia. The group's conception took place much farther south in the department (province) of Colombia that gave the band its name.
Ensamble Ballet Folklorico de San Francisco is an innovative, theatrical body of dancers committed to the preservation of Mexican folklore, one of the richest artistic manifestations of tradition and culture in Mexico. The group teaches and performs this artistic tradition, with the hope that it will open a window to a new discipline for others to discover, and cultivate a desire to research and explore this art form.
La Mixta Criolla. Formerly Son Borikua, this dynamic ensemble performs original music inspired by Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean musical traditions. The group is led by Hector Lugo, a music educator and performer who have led the bomba and plena workshops at La Peña for seven years together with dancer Shefali Shah. They have partnered with La Peña to organize two international exchanges with the Cepeda Family, legendary bomba and plena practitioners in Puerto Rico. They have performed with their ensembles at numerous Festivals including the Ethnic Dance Festival in San Francisco.
Aguacero. Through Afro-Puerto Rican bomba music and dance, the group performs spoken and sung traditions and contemporary creative expressions.
Ramon "Sandy" Perez: Sandy is one of the best known and most talented of the younger percussionists from Matanzas. Sandy joined the legendary Grupo Afro-Cuba de Matanzas at age 17, and within a few years he earned the positions of principal drummer and soloist that he maintained until his move to the US. Sandy is knowledgeable and adept in diverse Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms and dance and collaborates with some of the most accomplished Cuban artists locally and nationally. In addition, Sandy's open-minded approach has enabled him to adapt to styles ranging from Cuban popular (Salsa) to fusion and avant-garde jazz.
