Afro Roots Fest Gainesville 2023: ODARA, Afro-Cuban Convening

1800 McCarty Drive,Gainesville FL 32603

07 April, 2023

Description

ODARA, A 2- DAY AFRO CUBAN CONVENING IN GAINESVILLE, FL. WITH MEMBERS OF RAICES PROFUNDAS | YORUBA ANDABO | GRUPO AFRO CUBA & CONJUNTO FOLKORICO NATIONAL DE CUBA, ALL TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE, ON ONE STAGE. Yudisleidy Valdes | Ernesto Gatell, El Gato | Roman Diaz | Sandy Perez | Alain Fernandez | Ivor MillerAPRIL 7, 2023 SONG, DANCE, AND DRUM WORKSHOPS | LECTURE & ARTIST PANEL VIRTUAL OPTION AVAILABLE FOR ALL WORKSHOPS, LECTURE, AND ARTIST PANEL*PREREGISTRATION IS REQUIRED* THERE WILL NOT BE AN OPTION TO REGISTER OR PAY ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT* CHECK-IN WILL START 30 MINUTES BEFORE CLASS*ALLOW YOURSELF 30 MINUTES TO PARK AND WALK & CHECK-IN________________________________ SATURDAY APRIL 8, 2023 BO DIDDLEY PLAZA 7-10 pm FREE ALL-AGES COMMUNITY CONCERT FEATURING JACARE BRAZILUF AFRO POP ENSEMBLEODARA CONJUNTO FOLKLORICOThe University of Florida Visitor Parking REITZ UNION PARKING GARAGE 737 REITZ UNION DRIVE GAINESVILLE, FL 32611 GARAGE HOURS AND FEES The hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM. Daily and short-term fees are to be paid at pay stations located at the stair towers and elevators in the garage. Standard Daily Fee – $6.00 (159 spaces available) Mid-term Parking Fee (2 hour limit) – $4.00 (40 spaces available) Short-term Parking Fee (45 minute limit) – $2.00 (72 spaces available) http://parking.ufl.edu/visitors/ Yudisleidy Valdez Mena graduated from the Escuela de Arte Samuel Feijoo in Santa Clara, Cuba, and has been a constant figure in the Cuban music and dance scene since 2001 when she first moved to Havana. Since that time, she has worked as a dancer, choreographer, performer, and instructor with the well known Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, Rumberos de Cuba, and Teatro America. She is skilled in all forms of Cuban dance, both popular and folkloric. Like her rumbero husband, Ernesto “Gato” Gatell, she immigrated to the U.S. in 2014. Ernesto “Gato” Gatell is one of the most recognized and beloved Cuban singers alive today. In 2013, the U.S. Government acknowledged him as a Musician of Extraordinary Ability at the very top of his field both nationally and internationally, thus allowing him to immigrate to the U.S. in 2014. He has recorded and toured with the biggest names in Afro-Cuban music – Clave y Guaguanco, Tata Guines, Changuito, Pancho Quinto, Rumberos de Cuba, Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, Puntilla, Hilario Duran, Jane Bunnett; and has been a member of several Cuban All-Star groups. His recordings have been nominated for and/or won the top music industry awards in three countries – the U.S. Grammy, the Canadian Juno, and the Cuban CubaDisco. Having mastered Afro-Cuban music, his current vision is to combine Afro-Cuban elements with other styles like Jazz, Funk, and World to create contemporary fusions. He also composes and plays percussion. Cuban born master percussionist Román Díaz is a “living repository” of Afro-Cuban culture. He is a noted scholar of Cuban religious and folkloric music as well as a composer and performer of contemporary Afro-Cuban music and Jazz . He has performed and recorded with Cuban diva Mercedíta Valdes, Canadian Jane Bunnett, Juan Carlos Formell, Paquito D’Rivera, and folkloric artist, Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, and Pianist Danílo Pérez. He has recorded with the Afro-Cuban folkloric groups; Yoruba Andabo, Raices Profundas and Los Marqueses de Atares. He has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Museum. As a member of the seminal Rumba ensemble, Yoruba Andabo, Díaz aided in the creation of the sound that has defined contemporary Rumba since the 1980’s in Cuba and around the world. In 2016 UNESCO designated Cuban Rumba a “World Heritage” elevating the importance of Rumba as a human cultural art form. A new rhythm called Guarapachangeo which incorporates Bata and the wooden cajón (box) into modern Rumba is the legacy of the late, Pancho Quinto, founder of Yoruba Andabo. Díaz continues to innovate the song style as well as migrating the conical two-headed Bata drum from religious music into contemporary Jazz. Sandy joined Grupo Afro-Cuba de Matanzas at age 17, and within a few years he earned the positions of principal drummer and soloist that he maintained until his move to the US. Sandy was a featured artist at the 1996 Havana Jazz Festival and was invited to perform at the 1996 Afrocubanismo! festival in Banff, Canada. Although the roots of his techniques are founded in Afro-Cuban folkloric styles, Sandy's open-minded approach has enabled him to adapt to styles ranging from Cuban popular (Salsa) to fusion and avant-garde jazz Alain Fernandez graduated from La Escuela Nacional del Arte in Havana, Cuba in 1992. In 1993, at eighteen, he became a dancer with Conjunto Folklorico National de Cuba and performed at international festivals such as the Guanajuato Festival in Mexico. 1996, Alain was part of Flor de Havana, where he received recognition as a singer. And in1997, Alain was featured on the original Abbilona Record, which to date is one of the most extensive recordings of Yoruba singing. After immigrating to the United States in 1998, he began dancing with Grupo Iroko and participated in one of the most famous events in Miami, Carnival on Calle Ocho. Now after many sacrifices, Alain is one of the most sought Akpons in Miami with his tambor de fundamento, Oba Gba. Ivor Miller is a Research Affiliate at the African Studies Center at Boston University, a non-resident Fellow of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University (2016-2021), and a Researcher at the Department of History, University of Calabar, Nigeria. He was a Senior Fellow at the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution (2011-2012), and a Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria (2009-2011). Miller studies the cultural history of the Cross River region of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon, and its impact in the Caribbean and the Americas through the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He recently co-edited “Calabar on the Cross River: Historical and Cultural Studies” (2017), and translated a Cuban dictionary of Cross River phrases as “The Sacred Language of the Abakuá” (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2020). He and co-translator Patricia González were awarded two NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations grants from 2016-2022. His book, “Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba” (UP of Mississippi 2009/ CBAAC Lagos 2011) was awarded Honorable Mention by the Association for Africanist Anthropology. Based upon fieldwork in Nigeria, Cameroon, Cuba, and the USA, it documents ritual languages and practices that survived the Middle Passage and evolved into a unifying charter for forced migrants into Cuba and their successors. Miller’s research draws upon oral traditions and private manuscripts of specialists in African and Caribbean initiation systems, as well as published literature, official archives, the visual, audio and performed arts, as well as primary observations of ritual practice.