El Museo del Barrio is going to the Bronx Zoo! In partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society join us at the Bronx Zoo for their six-week long summer program Passport to the World. Every weekend, we’re highlighting the storytelling, food, music, and dance from a different country of Central and South America at Astor Court. For tickets and information, click here.
Join El Museo as it takes over The Bronx Zoo on Saturday, July 21st and Sunday, July 22nd featuring the beautiful country of Guatemala! This week, participants will learn about Guatemalan traditions and culture, while Bodoma Garifuna Culture Band takes us on a journey from Africa to the Americas by sharing the wisdom of the Garifuna peoples. After that, Jose Obando and The Marimba Lira Huehueteca will discuss and perform the marimba– an instrument that has indigenous roots.
SCHEDULE:
Storytelling
Workshop | 11:00am – 12:00pm
Storytelling is an important aspect of Latin American and Caribbean culture. It is a way that we can communicate shared experiences, values, and learn about something new. Join us each week as we share stories from around the world that talk about different cultures, family, home, magic, and more!
Art Making Workshop
Barriletes | 11:00am – 3:30pm
The tiny town of Santiago Sacatepequez in Guatemala is famous for its annual gigantic kite festival on el Día de Todos los Santos (Day of the Dead or All Saints’ Day). The gigantic barriletes gigantes (kites), were originally flown as a way to remember and connect to ancestors. Today, we will make our own kites!
Performance and Workshop
Bodoma Garifuna Culture Band | 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Bodoma Garifuna Cultural Band will tell us the history and introduce us to the rhythms of the Garifuna peoples. Through the medley of traditional roots Garifuna music which include Sambay, Banguidy, Wanaragua, Punta and Paranda. Rhythms that were created in the island of St Vincent and preserved in Honduras.
Dance Performance
The Marimba Lira Huehueteca | 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Join The Marimba Lira Huehueteca, as they perform a vals, cumbia, fox trot, and son. Learn about the origins and evolution of the marimba as an ethnographic record from its beginning in Southeast Asia, appearing then in Southeast Africa, then brought to Guatemala by slaves.
ABOUT BODOMA GARIFUNA CULTURAL BAND
Bodoma Garifuna Cultural Band fully embraces and promotes the Garifuna communal cultural philosophy- Garifunadua. Whose only testament is Amuru Buni, Amuru Nuni aka I for you, you for me. BDCB goal is to generate a conversation about the Garinagu existence with UMAMA (universe in garifuna langauge) and its inhabitants via music. As a resilient community the Garinagu have endured genocide, oppression and marginalization in the nations they currently reside. The Garifuna community could not have survived that tragic historical experience without the cultural philosophy of Garifunadua. The Garifuna community practices a 5000 year old culture. It wouldn’t be in existence without the language and music. As leaders of the Garifuna music revival movement BGCB perfroms DUGU, Banguidy, Paranda, Sambay, Gunchey and others.
ABOUT JOSE OBANDO
Mr. Jose Obando was born in Guayaquil Ecuador and has a graduate education both in the United States and his native land. Presently, he serves as a Consultant for the Musical Instruments Department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2001. He has presented this marimba program at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Obando presents public educational programs describing musical instruments and their dance traditions from Mexico, Guatemala, Afro-Ecuadorian, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico; he works with artisans and consulates to acquisition instruments and produces the accompanying documentaries that trace their evolution.