From Slavery to Revolution: Afro-Cuban Folkloric Drumming of Matanzas

The city of Matanzas remains an important hub of Afro-Cuban culture where drumming traditions that arrived with Africans who were forcibly brought to the island in the 19th century are still practiced today. This drumming tradition has survived urban slavery during which Africans were incarcerated in the lowest, flood-prone parts of the bay. It continued to be performed in secret through colonial and pre-revolution history, and only in the last 40 years has this drumming been performed in the open without the persecution of policing and prejudice. Featuring performances by the Queensborough Community College (QCC) Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Neeraj Mehta, Associate Professor of Music at QCC, this program will contextualize selected works from this repertoire to explore and illustrate the impact that the urban slavery experience and subsequent liberation had on the way this music has been practiced and performed.

This event is part of the 2021-22 Harriet & Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) and National Endowment for the Humanities Colloquium, “Incarceration, Transformation & Paths to Liberation during the Holocaust and Beyond.” The event is organized by the KHC in partnership with the Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC) at Queensborough Community College (QCC) and is co-sponsored by the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College; the Ray Wolpow Institute at Western Washington University; the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University; and the Department of Music at QCC.

For more information about the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center, please visit https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu