SFJAZZ, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival (YBGF) and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) are pleased to continue our collaboration in this six-week lecture series hosted by John Santos, featuring live musical examples (in weeks one and six), in addition to selections from Santos’ legendary collection of audio and video recordings.‍

The Sounds of Resistance

‍Music and dance remain foundation tools in the identity and documentation of the Afro/Latino/Indigenous peoples of the colonized Americas. As such, the arts become weapons of mass construction, giving hope, courage, clarity and love to countless distressed communities. Many musicians have forsaken the stardom attached to music in the Western world in order to preserve musical traditions that must evolve, but must not perish. This series will uncover Latin America’s long history of the musicians who have defined their art through progressive movements of social change.

‍Week 5. Puerto Rico

‍As Cuba’s sister island, Puerto Rico shares the same colonial history of resistance, forging a symbiotic relationship with Cuba celebrated by poets, dancers, musicians and statesmen.

The Afro-Puerto Rican styles known as Bomba and Plena have always been on the front line of the movement against slavery and oppression. Jibaro musicians, originally from rural areas, have also expressed their views of independence  with much musical creativity. We will include Ramito, Pedro Flores, Rafael Cepeda, Rafael Hernandez, Lucecita Benitez, Roberto Roena, Ismael Rivera, Rafael Cortijo, Kianí Medina, Juan Gutierrez, Danny Rivera, Viento de Agua, Desde Zero, and Andres Jimenez in our conversation.