Puerto Rican Bomba Dance Fever Raises Temperatures on April 7
Brooklyn, N.Y. - The fourth annual "Brooklyn Bombazo," a bomba dance party in which dancers and drummers face off in Puerto Rico's newest dance craze based on a centuries-old art form, will take place at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church (85 South Oxford St., between Lafayette and Fulton), on Sunday, April 7 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Suggested donation is $10. Proceeds go to the 9/11 Relief Fund and the LAPC Restoration Fund. The event is hosted by Long Island University's Los Bomberos de Brooklyn (co-directed by Awilda Sterling and Halbert Barton) and features Yerbabuena. "We got a great response last year and the people who participated then wanted another chance to experience this electrifying art form," said Halbert Barton, an anthropology professor at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, a bomba performer, and cofounder of the Puerto-Rican based community arts organization, CICRE (Centro de Investigaciones Cultural Raíces Eternas). Barton describes bomba as a unique and active expression of communal joy. It was born in Puerto Rico about 400 years ago from the children of African and Indian slaves and Spanish slave-owners and reflects the many cultures that landed in Puerto Rico. Barton received the "Hermandad" (Brotherhood) Award from El Instituto de Puerto Rico for outstanding service to the Puerto Rican community by a non-Puerto Rican, for his work as an arts educator specializing in bomba music and dance. The annual awards ceremony, which honors outstanding Puerto Rican performers, took place in the ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Manhattan last fall and was attended by hundreds of Puerto Rican leaders. For more information, call (718) 488-1163 or e-mail hbarton@liu.edu. |
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