Don’t miss these Latin music concerts in the Bronx, Brooklyn, & Queens
02 August, 2019The dog days of summer in New York City can sometimes make it seem like there are only a few more weeks of outdoor fun before fall is on its way. Luckily for those in the Big Apple, there’s plenty of Latin music on tap. Here are some shows we’re excited about.
Summerstage/Crotona Park in the Bronx: Garifuna Collective
Summerstage is best known for it’s concerts in Manhattan’s Central Park, but the folks at City Parks Foundation do a wonderful job at curating music throughout the five boroughs. On Friday, the 2nd of August, a collective that has performed in over 30 countries on five continents will perform at Crotona Park in the Bronx.
The Garifuna Collective a seasoned team of musicians from across different generations whose performances spark the history and soul of Garifuna culture into vivid life. The Garifuna people, also known as Garinagu, are descendants of Afro-indigenous people from the Caribbean island of St Vincent who were exiled to Central America by the British in the 18th century.
Hailing from Belize, members the collective been part of the most celebrated Garifuna albums of all time, including the critically acclaimed Wátina, recipient of the Womex and BBC World Music Award and voted by Amazon as the #1 World Music Album of All Time. Garifuna Collective’s next album, ABAN, is expected to drop in September.
Fridays’ concert also includes a performance by the Bronx based Wabafu Garifuna Dance Theater (pictured above, left). A Garifuna dance lesson takes place before the concert at 6 p.m.
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!/Prospect Park: Bomba Estereo & Delsonido
BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn! festival has hosted French-Cuban sister Ibeyi, El rebelde del accordion Celso Piña, and Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno. On Saturday the 10th of August, Colombia’s Bomba Estereo will take the stage. Opening to them are fiery local Colombian expat outfit Delsonido (pictured above, right), so there will be lots of dancing.
Check out the latest remix to Bomba Estereo’s song with Sofi Tukker, “Playa Grande.” It’s by Colombian-Mexican producer, Sinego.
Queens Museum: Combo Chimbita & poet Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Also on the 10th of August, this evening outdoor concert and artist performance marks the final event in a series of public programs that delve deeper into the themes, contexts, and aesthetics that have informed Queens Museum’s Spring 2019 Exhibitions. NYC/Colombia’s Combo Chimbita, who have been touring all year in support of their second studio album, Ahomale, take the stage at 7:30 p.m., followed by a special performance by Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña (pictured above, center).
In his latest solo spoken word performance, The Most (Un) Documented Mexican Artist, Gómez-Peña draws from his 30 year old living archive and combines new and classic performance material to present a unique perspective on the immediate future of the Americas. His self-styled “imaginary activism” invokes performance art as a form of radical democracy and citizenship. Combining spoken word poetry, activist theory, radical storytelling and language experimentation, Gómez-Peña offers critical and humorous commentary about the art world, academia, new technologies, the culture of war and violence in the US, organized crime in Mexico, gender and race politics, and the latest wave of complications surrounding gentrification in the “creative city.”
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