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The introduction to the production “Festival for the Dead”. The production began with a multimedia sequence projected with live music followed by interviews footage of community members explaining their own connections to the ancestors.

For many…

All Raícitas share what they learn at community events, open houses, family performances and cultural festivals. These Raícitas presented the history and meaning of bomba.

Raíces Cultural Center was able to present a variety of traditions that honor the ancestors through music, song and dance thanks to a cultural collaboration with Grupo Ribeiro from New York City, who presented the Brazilian traditions of the caboclo…

Toque and chant for the orisha Obbá, keeper of the graves in the cemetary.

Oyá is the orisha, or force of nature of the whirlwinds, the energy that brings chaos and destruction to make room for change and new growth. She is also the gatekeeper of the cemetary and the marketplace, deciding who may enter and who may leave.

The batá are the liturgical drums of Ocha. The rhythms and chants are used to praise, honor and call to the Orishas, or forces of nature.

The chants and the toques de batá for the dead performed by the Raíces Ensemble and guest artists in the Festival for the Dead are taken from the Lucumí/Ocha liturgy of Cuba.

The Plegarias, or spiritual masses, are taken from the Espiritismo liturgy as practiced on the island of Cuba and in the diaspora.