• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor

Bulla en el Barrio Sings Colombian Bullerengue at the Neo Afro Diasporic Fest at Hostos

Bulla en el Barrio is New York’s first Colombian Bullerengue collective.

Bullerengue was originally sung during women’s puberty celebrations in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, the first free African town in the Americas. “Bulla” means applause in Spanish. The tradition was basically community women applauding community girls on their transition from childhood to adulthood.

Many Americans have never experienced African Diaspora song, drum, and dance traditions. African Diaspora drums are healing instruments. Get close to them and you may feel it. The singing is call and response, and often includes improvisation just like jazz and rap. Whether you understand the words or not, if you stand among the chorus, you may feel the spiritual presence of everyone singing. It’s a great feeling.

Bulla en el Barrio in New York City

Bulla en el Barrio, New York’s Colombian bullerengue group, teaches a workshop and performs at the concert of the New Afro Diasporic Fest 2023 of Afro art, dance, music, and talks at Hostos Center in Mott Haven, The Bronx; on Saturday, October 14, 2023. Workshop at 3pm. Concert at 7pm. FREE. hostos.cuny.edu 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇬🇲 🇭🇳 🇵🇷

Bulla en el Barrio

Bulla en el Barrio was founded by Carolina Oliveros. She was born in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, Colombia. It’s the port at the mouth of the Magdalena River, Colombia’s great river. Barranquilla is special because the city was built by the people, not the Spanish colonizers.

Bulla en el Barrio is New York’s first bullerengue group. It started in 2014 as a group of women who would sing and dance in Central Park.

Ms. Oliveros learned to sing bullerengue in San Juan de Urabá, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Her master teacher was drummer and composer Emilsen Pacheco. He is considered one of the best bullerengue musicians in Colombia.

Palenque of San Basilio

A Palenque is a walled village of free Africans and Indigenous Peoples hidden in the interior. San Basilio was the first palenque to win its freedom, but there were many similar enclaves throughout the Americas.

If you have no idea what a palenque is, watch the excellent Colombian telenovela “La Esclava Blanca.” It may be on Netflix with subtitles. The story isn’t perfect, it’s a telenovela. But it provides an interesting window into that time and place.

The people of the Palenque of San Basilio fought back against the Spanish colonizers so ferociously, they were granted freedom in 1691. They were the first free Africans in the Americas.

San Basilio de Palenque is the only Colombian palenque that survives to the present day. It preserves many African traditions. Some people still speak Palenquero, a unique Spanish-Bantu language with roots around West Africa’s Congo River.

The spirit that enabled the people to survive, escape to a palenque, and renew their traditions, lives on. Let freedom sing.

For more information, visit Instagram @bulla_en_el_barrio



Published October 11, 2023 ~ Updated October 11, 2023.

Filed Under: Colombian, cumbia, Hostos Center, Latin Music, Mott Haven, People

Primary Sidebar

Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda

Papo Vázquez (artist/Hostos)

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours Play a Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda at Hostos Center

Mexican Opera in Spanish

Ailyn Pérez in "Florencia el el Amazonas" (Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Mexican Opera “Florencia en el Amazonas” Stars Ailyn Pérez in Spanish at the Metropolitan Opera

Mexican Holiday Folkloric Ballet

Ballet Nepantla "Nacimiento" (Nina Galicheva/BN)

Ballet Nepantla “Nacimiento” is a Holiday Folkloric Ballet About The Birth of the Mexican People From Indigenous and Spanish Roots

Cuban Son Musical

Buena Vista Social Club™ musical (Atlantic Theater Company)

Buena Vista Social Club™ is now a Saheem Ali musical about a band of retired Cubans who made the whole world dance again, at the Atlantic Theater Company

Theatre Professionals ~ Theatre Employers Network

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Things to do in NYC in January 2024

Sponsored By The Best Of New York

2023 Sponsors 🙏🏽

92nd Street Y, New York

Atlantic Theater Company

Ballet Hispánico

Ballet Nepantla 🇲🇽

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company 🇲🇽

CCCADI Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

Carnegie Hall

Harlem Stage

Hostos Center

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Parade

Marco Orsini Documentary Filmmaker 🇵🇷

Metropolitan Opera

New York City Center

RISE Theatre Directory

Robert Browning Associates

Teatro Real, Royal Opera of Madrid

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine®

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's email.

Follow

¡WEPA!

New York

Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.