Browse Items (4209 total)

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.

The current generation needs to go back to our roots

Talking plants

So proud of the vegitation

So proud of our achievement

Sitting on the foot print in the rock

Thatching the enertainment area

Serving food using everything in the environment

Really happy with the way the foliage growing

Rainy season is perfect time