Browse Items (2121 total)

Flyer for the 2011 Black History Festival organized by the Lounge Society in New Brunswick, NJ. EVENT DESCRIPTION This annual community festival was packed with performances, art, speakers, children's activities, food, vendors, prizes and more! The…

Oral history interview with drummer, musician and composer Nancy Friedman.

This short video was created by Xavier Diaz of Pretty Normal Productions about Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Experiemental Dance Ensemble after meeting Danys Perez aka La Mora, a teacher, choreographer, proud Afro-Cubana and the founder of Oyu Oro, at an event…

Flyer for Transition Monmouth Gardeners’ Roundtable.

EVENT DESCRIPTION
Raíces Eco-Culture participated in this gardeners’ roundtable discussion on the successes, challenges, frustrations and delights experienced in the 2013 gardening season.

Thunderbird Woman Flat Bag by Julia Marden.

Traditionally, vejigantes carried inflated cow or goat bladders on the end of a stick and use it to tease, taunt and chase those participating in the celebrations, or las fiestas, especially children. Today a balloon or paper bag is what is commonly…

Gabriela Pérez dancing plena at a public educational performance in New Brunswick, NJ. Plena is the national music dance of Puerto Rico and is commonly played, sung, and danced in the diaspora at festivals, parties, plenazos, performances and…

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…

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.

Gabriela Pérez dancing bomba with Los Vejigantes.

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

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, like many genres from the Caribbean traditions, is participatory. It is a community based tradition, with no defined roles of performer and audience. When the Raíces ensemble performs bomba, they always include members of the audience so…

The Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble shares the music, song, dance, history and cultural traditions of the Caribbean throughout our community and beyond. Raíces Ensemble members perform the traditions of plena and los vejigantes de puerto rico with…

Performance by the Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble with Raícitas student performers. Sharing the tradition of Los Vejigantes de Puerto Rico with the students at the Greater Brunswick Charter School in New Brunswick. A vejigante is a clown-like…

Handmade and hand-painted paper-mache vejigante mask. There are two main types of vejigante masks found in Puerto Rico, those made from coconuts, more common to the Loíza area and those made of paper-mache, more common to Ponce and Mayaguez.

Raícitas don’t just study the traditions of the Caribbean, they also share them with audiences in and around there community. These vejigantes are Raícitas student performers, sharing this cultural tradition from the Island of Puerto Rico with their…

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…

Sharing knowledge throughout our community. Raíces directors and performers travel to schools throughout our region to spread knowledge about Caribbean cultures, cultural history, music, dance and art. Instruments shown here include a güiro, a cua…

Silent Knight working virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excerpt from the Roots Music Exhibit Timeline:

"Just as things were building up with News Beat, the Innocence Project, and The Band Called FUSE, the pandemic hit. Things would never…

The mbira guys discussing

The grass for the roofing

The family structure is important in Zimbabwe

The day I took Ishmael to Masikandoro and the day he invited me to meet Zvarimwa.