April 16-22, 2022
Albuquerque, New Mexico
AFROMUNDO Shared Roots Festival
April 16-22, 2022
Music, dance, literature, culinary taste feasts, film, visual art, & panel discussions
featuring members of BFN | FUAAD
A weeklong series of bilingual presentations showcasing the shared histories, cultures and traditions of Afro peoples throughout the Americas.
Featured regions are Quisqueya (home of Haiti where the first successful slave rebellion occurred, and of the Dominican Republic, first Spanish colony in the Americas from where Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Diego Velasquez and Alonso de Ojeda launched incursions into Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Venezuela), Mexico (which only last year included Afro-Mexicans in the census), Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory since 1898), and Spain (whose African influences are generally overlooked).
View the online archive.
“Rage and Honey: A Night of Black Flamenco” is a one night show featuring flamenco artists of African descent exploring the resonances of flamenco through the Black body in a collection of solo and group dance pieces that will stir your mind and soul.
In the opening group piece, “1492”, dancers move singularly and all at once, sometimes colliding to the beat of the cajon drum marking the emotional exodus of the Moors from Spain.
Dance Magazine’s critically acclaimed flamenco artist, Yvonne Gutierrez will perform castanets and Yvonne Gutierrez’s “Herencia” Dancers will perform to Camaron de la Isla’s “Leyenda del Tiempo”. Dance evolved from flamenco’s “ida y vuelta”, back and forth, migration from the Caribbean to Spain will also be brought forth by Yvonne Gutierrez’s “Herencia” Dancers in an original work by Virginia-based choreographer, Kevin LaMarr Jones.
Montreal-based artist, La Roseline’s “Duende Deep” is a tribute to Tina Turner’s innate “flamenco-like” charisma and choreographed by Kevin LaMarr Jones; she will also perform a duet with Kevin LaMarr Jones to the theme of “Rage and Honey”. Omonike Akinyemi’s “Las Cumadres Fechiceras”, a foreboding tale of a Medieval Sephardic Jewish nanny’s temptation, digs into flamenco’s roots, exploring the self torn into two parts in a live duet set to music by Ana Maria Ruimonte and Alan Lewine of Arizona.
Image Quilt Dance Theater will include new dancers– Orisa Guttierez, Kamari Lynch, and Angelica Mondol Viana– to bring forth Omonike Akinyemi’s new works “Tunnels” and “Eji Ogbe”, contemporary flamenco pieces that explore ancient African spirituality pit against 21st century angst. Dwayne Beach, internationally acclaimed violinist, will unleash his original soleá rhythm inspired composition, "Flamenqueña'', on this night of Black Flamenco, as well.
Performers include (in alphabetical order): Omonike Akinyemi, Dwayne Beach, Orisa Gutierrez, Yvonne Gutierrez, Kevin LaMarr Jones, La Roseline, Kamari Lynch, Simone Sprague, Angelica Mondol Viana, and Yvonne Gutierrez’s Herencia Dancers. The event is produced by Image Quilt Dance Theater and is being held at their 16 Cowries Art Space at The Actors Temple
Theater, 339 West 47th Street. Tickets are available for $20 on-line at Image Quilt or $25 at the door.The concert is produced by Image Quilt Cinema & Dance Theater in association with the Black Flamenco Network/Flamencos Unidos Africanos y Afro-descendientes.
For More Information Contact:
Omonike Akinyemi
Tel: 917-340-1624
Email: production@imagequilt.com