Congo-Cuba in New York: Palo Mayombe Music Dance & Religion

Manuela Arciniegas

Manuela Arciniegas is a Public Humanities Fellow at the National Council of the Humanities and a Magnet Presidential Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology. Her research interests lie in the intersection between African diaspora, Afro-Caribbean Religion, Music, and Empowerment. Manuela has taught Caribbean music at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and for various arts education and social justice groups throughout NYC.

She is one of the founders and co-organizers of We Are All Dominican, a student/artist/activist group fighting human rights abuses and denationalization of communities of haitian descent in Dominican Republic and the founder and director of Legacy Women, an all-women’s traditional Afro-Caribbean music ensemble that seeks to empower women and girls throughout NYC by developing their musicianship, self-esteem and cultural awareness. Manuela is also the Senior Program Associate at the Andrus Family Fund, where she supports community organizing, advocacy, and policy work of Non-profit national groups working on juvenile justice and foster care systems. She has been working in education, cultural arts, and community organizing for the past twelve years at groups like Sustainable South Bronx, Caribbean Cultural Center, Citylore, The Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Mothers on the Move, BronxWorks, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Dominican Women’s Development Center, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Manuela graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2001 and has won awards for her combination of community education, arts and social justice, including the 2008 Urban Artist Initiative and the Wagner School of Public Leadership’s Social Justice Fellowship. She has performed at venues such as Symphony Space, and was trained by the Center for a third World Organizing’s Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program.

Ryan Mann-Hamilton

Member

Dr. Ryan Mann-Hamilton is Assistant Professor in the Social Science Department and teaches a variety of courses in Anthropology, Music and Latin American studies and is heavily invested in issues of Environmental Justice. Dr. Mann-Hamilton has extensive experience working on land and marine based conservation projects in the Caribbean and social justice activism in the context of the Americas, and supporting and participating in food sovereignty projects He is currently the faculty Co-Leader of the Presidents Society Environment Program working with a cohort of 20 students and various community partners to design and implement green spaces and environmental education at LaGuardia over the next three years. Dr. Mann-Hamilton was also selected as Faculty Lead by the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY to direct a two year public engagement program focusing on the relationship between race, environment and the humanities that will center the experiences and existing networks between communities in New York and those in the Caribbean. He has extensive experience in public programming, project oversight and curriculum development. His most recent publication was a chapter on community centered fisheries conservation and education programs that were developed in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas and the lessons learned from that endeavor. Email: [email protected]

Alex LaSalle

Alex LaSalle is a high priest (Tata Nkisi) to one of the oldest houses of Kongo-Cuban Palo in Cuba and now New York City– Batalla Sacampeño Mayombe. His teacher and mentor is Florencio Miguel Garzon (“Loanganga”) from Cuba. In addition to serving as a diviner and priest, Alex is also a specialist in hundreds of Afro-Cuban Kongo Mambo songs and rituals. Alex is fluent in the Afro-Cuban Bantu/Kongo language, is an avid researcher and oral historian. He has presented lectures for educators and students at Yale, Columbia, New York University, Long Island University and others. A teaching artist in the public schools of New York City, Alex is the founder and director of Alma Moyo Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba group, and member of Grammy Nominated Los Pleneros de la 21 and Grupo Folklorico Experimental Nueva Yorquino. Alex has performed with such groups as Roberto Cepeda’s Bomba Aché, William Cepeda’s Afro-Boricua, Felix Alduén y su Tambores, Pa’lo Monte, Nchila Ngoma Mayombe, and 21 Division.

John Amira

John Amira is a master drummer with over 40 years’ experience in Cuban and Haitian traditional and folkloric music, is the author of the groundbreaking book, The Music of Santeria: Traditional Rhythms of the Bata Drums. John’s drumming has given him the opportunity to perform with top artists (Celia Cruz, Ruth Fernandez, Tito Puente and Emeline Michel); in theater (“A Season In The Congo”, “Shango De Ima”); in film (“Putney Swope”, “Fighting Back” and “American Gangster”); on T.V.and radio; and in recordings with Latin, Jazz and other groups. He teaches, performs and lectures at universities and institutes such as: The Hartt School of Music, New England Conservatory, Julliard, Yale, New York University, Mannes, New School, Duke, Bates, Occidental, Middlebury, Kentucky State, Naropa, Drummer’s Collective, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum Of Natural History, and KoSA International Percussion Workshop. He lives in New York City where he teaches conga and bata.

Ned Sublette

Ned Sublette is the co-author with Constance Sublette of the forthcoming The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry (Chicago Review Press, October 2015). He is the author of The Year Before the Flood (Lawrence Hill Books, 2009); The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square (Lawrence Hill Books 2008, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year in 2009 and One Book One New Orleans city-wide reading selection in 2012); and Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo (Chicago Review Press, 2004, ASCAP Deems Taylor Award). He is a frequent speaker at universities, museums, conferences, and festivals. As a musical performer, he sings the principal role of “R” in Robert Ashley’s Spanish-language opera-telenovela Vidas Perfectas, which has to date been performed in New York, London, El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and Marfa, TX. As a singer-songwriter, his albums include Kiss You Down South (Postmambo), winner of the Premio Cubadisco; Cowboy Rumba (Palm Pictures); and Monsters from the Deep (with Lawrence Weiner) and Ships at Sea, Sailors and Shoes (with Lawrence Weiner and the Persuasions) (Excellent In the 1990s he co-founded the record label Qbadisc, which pioneered the marketing of contemporary Cuban music in the United States in the early 90s. He has produced or co-produced albums and tracks by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Los Van Van, Maraca y Otra Visión, Viento de Agua, Adewale Ayuba, Kanda Bongo Man, and others. He has produced over 150 episodes of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Afropop Worldwide and co-founded their Hip Deep series, which brings the work of scholars to a radio audience. In 2010-11 he was the Patrick Henry Writing Fellow at the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, and he has also been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Tulane Rockefeller Humanities Fellow, and a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library.

Peter Manuel

Peter Manuel has written extensively about popular and traditional musics of India, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. Three of his books have earned prestigious awards. An amateur sitarist, jazz pianist, and flamenco guitarist, he teaches seminars on Indian music, Latin American music, world popular music, aesthetics, and other topics.

Yesenia Martinez Selier

Yesenia Fernandez-Selier is a Cuban born performer and researcher, Yesenia Fernandez Selier is currently a Media, Culture and Communication PhD Student at New York University-Steinhardt. Yesenia is the recipient of fellowships from CLACSO, CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, Cuban Heritage Collection and the organization “Save Latin America”. Her work on Afro Cuban culture, encompassing dance, music and race identity has been published in Cuba, United States and Brazil. She produced the theater play “ Women Orishas” for Miami Cuban Museum (2013) and the show “Cuba en Clave” for the New York Cuban Cultural Center (2014). She was featured dancing Yemaya in Jazz at Lincoln Center 2014 opening with Wynton Marsalis, Chucho Valdes and Pedrito Martinez.