Bulla en El Barrio @ Afro-Latino Festival of New York 2016 by ©AilynRobles
There’s Colombians in New York City and there’s New Yorkers born to Colombian parents – are they ultimately the same? I’m of the latter and half that with a Cuban mother, so it’s something I think about everyday. Do both groups meld into one shared experience once a New Yorker spends a few years in Colombia and a Colombian a few years in New York? Surely, they must share something in common, right?
I love that the recurring theme of this Afropop Worldwide show on “Colombians in New York City” is that most if not all the artists were not all that interested in the folkloric music of the country. It took the literal movement to another place either geographically or personally in their life cycle to appreciate and LOVE it.
For some, it took seeing “gringos” reinterpret the roots music to move them to a place of realizing their own part in the very making of a now contemporary Colombian sound which will continue to evolve – in both NYC and Colombia, by Colombians and non-Colombians.
Thanks producer Morgan Greenstreet for connecting the hearts and using your platform to narrate these stories which for many of us regardless of national identity, are in process here in America as second generation #DIASPORADICAL:
Learn about the artists featured HERE. Listen and share the show: