“If you’re not African, you’re not human,” Keith Widyolar of New York Latin Culture Magazine. Africa is mother, the mother of all humanity. So literally, if you are not African, you are not human.
Africa is a massive and diverse continent. Latin culture is very African. Most popular culture in the Americas has African roots.
Cie Hervé KOUBI 2020
Tue-Sun, February 18-23, 2020
JOYCE THEATER
Chelsea, NYC
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The Algerian-French contemporary dance company celebrates its 20th anniversary with a Mediterranean journey through our common humanity.
Bulla en el Barrio
Monday, February 24, 2020
BARBÈS
Park Slope, Brooklyn
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Colombian Bullerengue inspired by the Caribbean women’s song and dance tradition from San Basilio de Palenque, the first free African town in the Americas
Mardi Gras
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana
The party in New Orleans gets going two weeks before “Mardi Gras” (Fat Tuesday). Mardi Gras in New Orleans is African, Caribbean, African-American, Congo Square, March, Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Latin Music and Latin Dance all at once.
Betsayda Machado y Parranda El Clavo
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Afro-Peruvian tambor jams with Jewish klezmer.
Black History Month
FEBRUARY
“Black History is American History.” Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Langston Hughes, Rosa Parks, Hank Aaron, Abraham Lincoln, Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglass, Machito, W.E.B. DuBois, Fats Domino and many more.
Jackie Robinson Day
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
BROOKLYN, NYC
#42 broke the Major League Baseball color barrier on Brooklyn Dodgers opening day, April 15, 1947
Haitian Flag Day
Monday, May 18, 2020
LITTLE HAITI, NYC
Haitian Flag Day celebrations commemorate the unity of African and Creole peoples, and in the U.S., Haitian contributions to U.S. culture
Museum Mile Festival
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
AFRICA CENTER
EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO
MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NY
JEWISH MUSEUM
COOPER HEWITT
GUGGENHEIM
NEUE GALERIE
MET MUSEUM
Upper East Side, NYC
Free museum admission and street activities for children
Juneteenth
Friday, June 19, 2020
GALVESTON, Texas
A year and a half after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a month after the end of the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. Army announced the enforcement of the end of legal slavery in Texas (and the United States) on June 19, 1865
Harlem Silent Parade
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
HARLEM, NYC
The men, women and children of Harlem protested against violence against people of color on July 28, 1917
African Festivals in NYC
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Black History Month, Kwanzaa, African American Day Parade, West Indian Day Parade, Afropunk, Afro-Latino Festival, AfriBembé, Harlem Havana, Black Comic Book Festival
Kwanzaa
Thursday-Wednesday
Dec 26, 2019 – Jan 1, 2020
Contemplate seven principles from our communal African heritage in this African-American holiday tradition that was created in New York City. Joyous Kwanzaa!
Black Comic Book Festival 2020
Friday-Saturday, January 17-18, 2020
SCHOMBURG CENTER
Harlem, NYC
African American Day Parade 2019
Sunday, September 15, 2019
HARLEM, NYC ~ Melba Moore and the Orange Crush Roaring Lion Marching Band of Lincoln University lead the parade on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd
West Indian Day Parade 2019 NYC’s Labor Day Carnival
Thu-Mon, Aug 29-Sep 2, 2019
LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Reggae Afrobeats Soca
Summer Jam Youth Fest
BrassFest
Junior Carnival Parade
Panorama Steelband Championship
Dimanche Gras Carnival Sunday Party
VIP Breakfast
Parade
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn ~ The Brooklyn Museum and the Parade on Eastern Avenue turns the neighborhood into a Caribbean Carnival
Continue Reading West Indian Day Parade 2019 NYC’s Labor Day Carnival
Two days of Afropunk show more style than Fashion Week
Sat-Sun, August 24-25, 2019
COMMODORE BARRY PARK
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Jill Scott, FKA Twigs, Leon Bridges and Kamasi Washington, about 40 more artists and a street fashion show with 70,000 models.
Continue Reading Two days of Afropunk show more style than Fashion Week
AfriBembé Festival 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
EAST HARLEM, NYC ~ The Caribbean Cultural Center hosts a Pan-African cultural festival and street fair around East Harlem Art Park on 120th St between Lexington and Third Ave
African New York City
“New York is a secret African city.”
Robert Farris Thompson, American historian at Yale University
In the beginning, New York City was built by Africans. The first Africans were brought to New Amsterdam by the Dutch in 1626. They were forced to build the wall on Wall Street which became a place where you could buy and sell humans. The first official human auction was in 1655. A human market was set up at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets in 1711.
New York’s traditional African neighborhoods are Harlem in Manhattan, and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Take the (A) train between them. A is for Africa.
Manhattan has had many Little Africas. Currently it is on 116th St west of Fifth Avenue. The Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market is a great place to buy West African products.
East of Fifth Avenue, 116th St becomes the main street of El Barrio Spanish Harlem. Black and Latin are two sides of the same coin.
Apollo Theater
HARLEM, NYC ~ The soul of Harlem. Wednesdays are Amateur Night at The Apollo!
Jazz at Lincoln Center
COLUMBUS CIRCLE, NYC
The world’s leading jazz institution hosts Latin jazz concerts
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¡New York Latin Culture Sponsor!
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Tue-Sun, Dec 4, 2019- Jan 5, 2020
New York City Center
MIDTOWN, NYC
Three world premieres that capture the zeitgeist, two company premieres, two new productions and always “Revelations”
Brooklyn Museum
Wednesday-Sunday
PROSPECT PARK, Brooklyn ~ NYC’s second biggest museum has good collections of African and Pre-Columbian art. First Saturdays are a Free party.
Dizzy’s Club
COLUMBUS CIRCLE, NYC
Jazz supper club overlooking Central park swings nightly at Jazz at Lincoln Center
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¡New York Latin Culture Sponsor!
Africa Center
Closed Mondays
EAST HARLEM ~ A center for dialogue on policy, business and the culture of Africa and the African diaspora
Schomburg Center
Monday-Saturday
HARLEM, NYC
This library of African culture grew out of the literary collection of Puerto Rican collector Arturo Alfonso Schomburg during the Harlem Renaissance
Dance Theatre of Harlem Sunday Matinée
Sunday, November 10, 2019
HARLEM, NYC ~ The DTH School, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Evidence bring ballet to the community at the Dance Theatre of Harlem studios
Harlem
The soul of New York City is at the Apollo Theater, Ginny’s at the Red Rooster, Minton’s Playhouse, Paris Blues and around
African New Yorkers
What makes someone a New Yorker? When you’re here, you are a New Yorker.
Dizzy Gillespie
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
CHERAW, South Carolina
The co-founder of bebop and godfather of Latin jazz, was born on October 21, 1917
Celia Cruz
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
HAVANA, Cuba
The one artist who most popularized Latin music around the world was born on October 21, 1925. ¡Azúcar!
Machito
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Machito (Machito and his Afro-Cubans), one of the godfathers of Latin jazz. He brought together Afro, Tanga, Graciela, Palladium and Dizzy. Machito celebrated his birthday on February 16, 1908.
Africans, African-American, Afro-Legends
Here language completely fails us.
Joe Arroyo
Sunday, November 1, 2020
CARTAGENA, Colombia
The greatest Colombian salsa singer of all time was born on November 1, 1955. “Rebelión” (No le pegue a la negra), “En Barranquilla me quedo,” “La Noche”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
BIRTHDAY Fri, January 15, 2021
HOLIDAY Mon, January 18, 2021
ATLANTA, Georgia ~ The African-American civil rights legend was born on January 15, 1929. Dr. King. every year we think of you, and every year you mean more to us.
African Culture
Bulla en el Barrio
Monday, February 24, 2020
BARBÈS
Park Slope, Brooklyn
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Colombian Bullerengue inspired by the Caribbean women’s song and dance tradition from San Basilio de Palenque, the first free African town in the Americas
Betsayda Machado y Parranda El Clavo
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Afro-Peruvian tambor jams with Jewish klezmer.
International Coffee Day
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Is your favorite coffee Brazilian, Colombian, Costa Rican, French, Guatemalan, Honduran, Italian, Mexican, Nicaraguan or Peruvian?
Candombe Day
Thursday, December 3, 2020
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay ~ Celebrate the Afro-Uruguayan drum and dance tradition that is an icon of Uruguayan identity
International Tango Day
Friday, December 11, 2020
The world celebrates tango, the African-Uruguayan-Argentine social dance, on Carlos Gardel’s birthday
Our Lady of Candelaria
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS, Spain
The patron saint of Tenerife in the Spanish African islands, and Cartagena, Colombia is a Black Madonna beloved across the Latin world
Reggaeton
Latin rap, by the Jamaican diaspora in Panama, jumped to New York, and developed in Puerto Rico before going worldwide. Colombians are making great reggaeton now too. “Tu Pun Pun, mami-mami, no…”
From the Editor
African culture is a difficult topic because Latin culture in the Americas and even in Europe has a lot of African in it. In the truest sense, most of our coverage is African culture – even if we don’t call it that. Language and our U.S. cultural training fail us.
It gets even more confusing when you wonder whether someone or something is Puerto Rican or African, Colombian or African, or American or African. Is Machito of Machito and his Afro-Cubans, African, Cuban, American or British?
Most of us would be completely lost if we took a plane to Africa, yet the way we sing and dance, and some of the stories we tell our children are African.
African culture dominates U.S popular culture. Puerto Rican salsa and Latin jazz legend Eddie Palmieri nailed it when he said at the 92nd Street Y, “The Spaniard brought the African and the African put everyone to dance. In the United States, they took away the drum and we got the blues.”
“The Spaniard brought the African and the African put everyone to dance. In the United States, they took away the drum and we got the blues.”
Eddie Palmieri at the 92nd Street Y
The blues is the root of American music of the United States. Jazz, country music, rock and everything that followed are built on the blues. In a way, much of the United States was built on the blues. Wall Street was literally built on the blues at the corner of Pearl St. African spirit cannot be broken.
A U.S. education doesn’t teach us much about Africa. It’s treated as a monolith, though Africa is a very diverse continent. If Spain and Portugal are mother countries, then so are African nations from Senegal to Angola and really all of coastal Africa. The stories just haven’t been told well.
As Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute once said at the Avalon Ballroom in Harlem, “We have to tell our own stories because nobody else will.”
“We have to tell our own stories because nobody else will.”
Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, CCCADI
One of our goals for the 2020’s is to start covering the culture of our African mother countries. Forgive our ignorance. Our education failed us, but we want to know better. We want to tell these stories, because they are our stories too.
Keith Widyolar, Editor-in-Chief
“You may write me down in history
with your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
Maya Angelou, from Still I Rise, 1978
