Browse Items (37 total)

  • Collection: Raíces Caribeñas Performances

Raíces Cultural Center delivered an arts and culture residency about the history, music, song and dance of the vejigantes at the Greater Brunswick Charter School in 2009. This culminating assembly performance was part of the 2009 Raíces Production…

Raícitas Youth Program student performers illustrate the Puerto Rican folkloric tradition of “Los Vejigantes”.

Bomba performance by the Raícitas Youth Program participants. Illustrates bomba dance, a conversation between the dancer and the drummer.

Plena is played on hand-held drums called panderos or panderettas, which look similar to tambourines without the cymbals. They are usually played in a set of three-the bajo, the seguidora and the primo or requinto. There can be many multiple bajos…

In June of 2009, Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble members were invited to participate in the Brooklyn Puerto Rican Day Parade, drumming, singing and dancing plena. Plena is a musical tradition that evolved on the island of Puerto Rico. Plena is…

Plena is a community tradition. Known as a “singing newspaper”, it tells a story, and traditionally brought news between the towns and cities of Puerto Rico. Everyone joins in the singing, dancing and playing.

The Streets2k Festival series began in 2005 with Streets2k5. Raíces has been involved in each of the Streets2k Festivals, as performers, participants, and also as partners with the original creators of the event, the public arts non-profit Albus…

After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble was asked to perform at a benefit event sponsored by local Rutgers University students. Raíces Ensemble members and Raíces student performers created a presentation for…

Raíces student performer Aja Washington dancing Yemayá, the orisha, or force of nature, of the ocean. In Nigeria, the orisha Yemayá was originally a river, but in the evolution on the island of Cuba, during and after the trans-Atlantic slave trade,…

Raíces Co-Directors Francisco G. Gómez and Nicole Wines in a Raíces Ensemble rehearsal. Francisco is also the Musical Director of Raíces. Pictured here in the spring of 2010 surrounded by cultural objects and instruments.

Raíces students often rehearse and perform with the core of the Raíces Ensemble. Practicing voices for a full chorus in the Spring of 2010.

The Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble was asked to share the traditions and cultures of the Caribbean through music, dance and song as part of the 2010 NAACP Kwanzaa Celebration. Raíces Ensemble members are pictured here playing batá and singing to…

As part of the 2009 Los Vejigantes de Puerto Rico arts residency program, the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble performed their vejigantes presentation at Paul Robeson Community Theme School for the Arts in New Brunswick, NJ. Students learned about…

Students learning plena dance steps with los vejigantes de Puerto Rico during an interactive performance and presentation at Paul Robeson Community Theme School for the Arts.

Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble performed bomba and plena and presented about the tradition of Los Vejigantes de Puerto Rico, an Afropuertorican folkloric tradition. After the interactive performance, participants had the opportunity to dance and…

As part of the 2009 Los Vejigantes de Puerto Rico residency program, the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble performed the music, dance and song of bomba and plena at the Greater Brunswick Charter School. As in all bombazos, audience/community…

Bomba is community! Students from the audience were invited up to dance bomba before the drum with the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble.

Raíces Caribeñas, the predecessor to the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble, performing as part the Streets 2k5 community and public arts festival. Raíces Caribeñas was invited to participate as part of the attempt to integrate cultural arts and…

NJ musicians from Raíces Caribeñas preparing to perform at the Streets2k5 festival in downtown New Brunswick, NJ. Raíces Caribeñas played Afro-Caribbean and hip-hop fusion music at this festival celebrating and highlighting public art.

Dean Warren Schomburg playing music with other NJ based folkloric Caribbean musicians

Raíces Caribeñas, the predecessor to the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble, performing giving an educational concert as part of the 2nd Reformed Church of New Brunswick’s Lunchtime Recital Series. Dean Warren Schomburg played both flute and percussion…

Raíces Cultural Center ensemble member Dean Warren Schomburg preparing to perform and share the history and evolution of traditional Puerto Rican and Cuban music and dance traditions with Rutgers University students at the Center for Latino Arts and…

Gabriela dancing bomba with students at the Greater Brunswick Charter School in New Brunswick, NJ, sharing the folkloric traditions of bomba, plena and los vejigantes de Puerto Rico.

There are many styles of bomba dresses and costume, both traditional and contemporary. Raíces Cultural Center had these costumes handmade by a local NJ seamstress for their educational performance series Los Vejigantes de Puerto Rico in 2009, opting…
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