Te Dedico Mis Mejores Pregones
The Magazine is feature articles on world-class Indigenous, European, African, Asian and Oceanian culture. That’s everyone because Latin is a mix of everyone, and so is New York City! We dedicate our best songs to the ancestors and our children.
Pooja Uberoi Interview: The Queen of Bollywood Dance
Pooja Uberoi is a globally recognized Bollywood dance director and choreographer. She teaches Bollywood actors to dance, and has directed and choreographed some of the biggest Bollywood musical theatre ever staged in India or the United States. She also invented the super fun BollyJazz dance style.
In the film, dance and theatre worlds, Uberoi is known as the “Queen of Bollywood Dance.” She produces NYC Dance Week and has choreographed for Dolly Parton and “Sesame Street.” Her life dream is to put authentic Bollywood on Broadway. We can’t wait to dance with Pooja.
Celebrate Las Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol
LOÍZA, PUERTO RICO, July 25, 2021 ~ Santiago Apóstol (St James) is the patron saint of Spain, Guatemala and many small towns across the Latin world.
Patron saint festivals are small town carnivals. Loíza Aldea, Puerto Rico’s most African Diaspora town has a beautiful celebration that blends Indigenous, Spanish and African Diaspora traditions.
In Loíza, it’s also Puerto Rico’s big festival of bomba Puertorriqueña, the African Diaspora drum, song and dance tradition with Taíno influences.
In New York City, the Bronx Music Hall in Melrose, The Bronx celebrates Santiago Apóstol with the Danza Fiesta folkloric group.
The Feature 🇵🇷
Sheila E hosts Tony Succar’s Roots of Latin Jazz on PBS Great Performances
NEW YORK CITY, July 16, 2021 ~ The “Roots of Latin Jazz” explores the rhythmic and cultural influences that came together in America from Brazil, Cuba, Peru and Spain.
Sheila E hosts. Tony Succar, the Salsa Renaissance Man (Best Salsa Album, Producer of the Year), produced and Pablo Gil leads the Raices Jazz Orchestra. The film features even more Grammy-winning artists including Richard Bona, Anaadi and others.
Latin music brings people together. From one, we became many, but in Latin jazz, from many we are one. This is PBS so you know it’s a Great Performance!
The Feature 🇵🇪
Arturo O’Farrill is One of NYC’s Latin Music Padrinos
NEW YORK CITY Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra win Grammys almost every year. His latest album, “Four Questions” won the 2020 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album.
He’s from one of the famous Cuban musical families and has become a padrino (godfather) of Latin music in New York City. He plays everywhere and with everyone, and gives and gives and gives. The music is always great.
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra play Sunday nights at Birdland. His father Chico O’Farrill started the weekly gig in the 1990s.
The World Music Institute got Philip Klint, the Emmy Award-winning journalist who helped set up NY1 Noticias, to speak with O’Farrill at home. This is a Grammy meets Emmy moment.
The Feature 🇨🇺
Tony Succar: The Salsa Renaissance Man
SANTURCE/MIAMI, June 23, 2021 ~ Tony Succar talks with New York Latin Culture Magazine about his career, Tik Tok Salsa Trap, the secret of his success, Abuelita Lola, and the roots of Latin jazz.
The salsa percussionist, composer and bandleader is the youngest artist to win Latin Grammys for Producer of the Year and Best Salsa Album. After rising to fame with Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson, Succar is blending salsa into new forms. The newest Latin Grammy Governor for Florida really is The Salsa Renaissance Man. You heard it here first!
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Frédéric Zaavy
SANTURCE/UPSTATE NEW YORK, February 26, 2021 ~ Photographers John Bigelow Taylor and Dianne Dubler talk about their newest art book “Stardust: The Work and Life of Jeweler Extraordinaire: Frédéric Zaavy.”
Zaavy was an extraordinary Parisian jeweler who was called to resurrect the Fabergé brand in the 2000s. He patterned himself after Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, the gem dealer to French Sun King Louis XIV, and the dealer of what is now called The Hope Diamond.
He actually asked Taylor and Dubler to write his biography years before he died. They talk about spending a lot of time in the last year of this master jeweler’s life.
Jarana Beat’s New York Fandango is the Perfect Antidote for COVID Blues
San Juan/The Bronx, February 19, 2021 ~ Fandango is an African drum, song and dance tradition that blended with Indigenous and Spanish traditions in Mexico’s Caribbean gateway city Veracruz. In colonial times, drumming wasn’t allowed, so the people stomped their feet instead. LOL. Zapateado dancing has become a pan-Mexican tradition.
Jarana Beat, led by music producer Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza, is an urban folk music collective that has been building fandango communities in New York City and around the world since 2007. It’s all about connection. The Fandango is just the latest Latin music to come out of The Bronx.
Ama Ríos Flows From Bomba to Reggaeton to Latin Alternative
Santurce, San Juan, February 5, 2021 ~ Ama Ríos is a Puerto Rican percussionist, music director and bandleader who flows like a river from the bomba folk tradition into reggaeton and Latin alternative with a lot of girl power.
She was one of the first female bomba lead drummers in Puerto Rico. It took us a while to realize how revolutionary that was. Ama is also reggaeton star Tego Calderon’s touring music director, and leads Émina, an all-female Afro-Caribbean Latin alternative band.
When Ama Ríos is drumming, singing or dancing, everybody loves bomba!
El Laberinto del Coco Héctor Barez
San Juan, January 6, 2021 ~ “Coco” Héctor Barez is taking Puerto Rican bomba rhythms to the world with his bomba jazz project “El Laberinto del Coco.”
Coco was Calle 13’s percussionist for their first decade. In Puerto Rico, he is sponsored by the Puerto Rican Cultural Institute. In the States, he is sponsored by the NEA (National Endowment of the Arts) and SXSW (South by Southwest Festival).
Many folk arts are only performed on stage or for tourists, but in Puerto Rico, bomba is very alive. It’s grown into a characteristic of Puerto Rican identity. Coco is one of the great drummers who leads bombazos (bomba parties) all over the island and now around the world. Everybody loves bomba!
Special Features
Take 2 Minutes to Register to Vote in the November 2nd New York City and State Election
REGISTRATION DEADLINE
Friday, October 8, 2021
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Lourdes Lopez, Miami City Ballet Artistic Director (Interview)
NEW YORK CITY; Dec 3, 2018; Cuban ballet leader ~ Lourdes Lopez, Miami City Ballet Artistic Director, former New York City Ballet Principal, talks about being a Cuban immigrant, family, opportunity, dancing for Balanchine and Robbins, the future of ballet and who we really are
Continue Reading Lourdes Lopez, Miami City Ballet Artistic Director (Interview)
INTERVIEW: Julio Bocca, the Baryshnikov of Latin America
Friday, April 14, 2017
YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX
DAVID H. KOCH THEATER, Lincoln Center
Continue Reading INTERVIEW: Julio Bocca, the Baryshnikov of Latin America
Our Future
The further we have gone into this project, the more we realize that we are working for our shared future. In the United States, many of us have lost touch with our heritage.
The Colonial Period was a cultural and literal World War 0. Non-Europeans were forced to abandon our own cultures. In the last 50 years, industrial civilization has been destroying the only Earth we have. Now the COVID-19 pandemic has taken away our elders who were the keepers of our heritage.
Culture is more important than ever. We want our children to know who they are because culture is the one thing that makes us human. The best life is one where we celebrate each other. Come celebrate with us porque la vida es un carnival. ¡Azúcar!