We gather in Holyoke, MA., to honor the cultural systems of the circum-Caribbean as an innovating force in Our Americas. This first event — of what we plan to be an annual cycle — highlights the spirituality of Caribbean peoples. We recognize Holyoke as an extension of the Caribbean through its contemporary Puerto Rican, Santo Domingan, Haitian, Cuban and other island populations.

Our program title, ‘Afro-Caribbean history through the arts’, is inclusive to welcome all to this occasion with some of the best folk artists of this genre, who will guide and teach us about the collective genius of Caribbean peoples, through inherited methods of evoking and memorializing their history within a sacred context.

Our artists are initiates into Afro-Caribbean systems — traditions that have developed over the centuries to teach mutual respect and co-existence — whose performance art sustains collective support for the expression of visions and sentiments.

We are celebrating Juneteenth by embracing the African heritage of the Caribbean as integral to the history of New England. As evoked by Herman Melville in Moby Dick, as exemplified by the DeWolf family of Rhode Island, as well as the Amistad ship in Mystic, Connecticut, the historic wealth of our coastal communities was developed through Atlantic shipping routes and Caribbean plantations. Today, this history is being recovered through research, for example by members of the Congregational Church of Old Lyme, who have worked to identify and memorialize the enslaved Africans and descendants in their community, as reflected in their African burial ground.

Understanding the value of ancestors in our lives (even if to appreciate the traditions and ideas they left for us), the artists will lead us through a spiritual mass to evoke the deceased who impact our lives positively, to evoke their legacies, whether they came from the Kongo, China, Native America, Europe, and to recall how they fought colonial bondage to give us sovereignty. Responding to a sequence of images from paintings created by culture bearers in the Cuban ritual systems, the artists will then evoke the Carabalí people, whose presence in Santiago de Cuba lives through its carnival ‘comparsa’ groups, and in Havana and Matanzas through the Abakuá society for mutual aid.

Then they will evoke the West African deities known as Orishá, who are structured into a group known as the Lukumí Confederation, where they act essentially as a system of Laws to guide and heal those who serve them. Here in the northeast, the closest equivalent might be the Iroquois Confederation, or the Six Nations, an egalitarian society whose ideas have contributed greatly to North American society.

The Artists:

Roger Consiglio, from Havana, Cuba, has been performing Afro-Cuban ritual and religious music for over 15 years. In Miami, he joined Marisol Blanco’s Sikan Afrocuban Dance Project. In New York City, he has worked with Danis Perez’s Oyu Oro Afrocuban Experimental Dance Ensemble and is an integral part of the Cuban rumba scene as a member of both Rumba de la Musa and the Román Diaz Ensemble. Roger recently joined the prestigious Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba Ensemble, which presents a synthesis of contemporary jazz and traditional Cuban folkloric music as inspired by the late master
Orlando ‘Puntilla’ Ríos.

‘Román Díaz’ began his professional career in Havana with rumba group Yoruba Andabo — contributing Abakuá narrative performances on two of their CDs. In 1998, his project Wemilere was released by a French producer — followed by his Ventu Rumbero project in 1999, which remains an unreleased masterpiece. In 1999 in New York City, the film Calle 54 featured Román with Orlando Ríos ‘Puntilla’, founder of a school for batá and rumba percussion in this metropolis. In 2001 in Brooklyn, Román led an Abakuá team to perform with Calabar communities from Nigeria, source of the Abakuá tradition. In 2004, he visited Calabar to showcase Abakuá performance at the invitation of the Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria. Inspired by these events, in 2009 Román led the recording Okobio Enyenison, an Abakuá jazz fusion project with the participation of Paquito D’Rivera, Steve Turré and Pedrito Martínez. In 2010, Roman supported Pedrito’s homage to Camarón de la Isla with brilliant rumba compositions evoking cultural ties between Andalucia and Havana. As co-founder of Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba ensemble in NYC, ‘Puntilla’ bestowed his position as lead folklorist to Román, who is also a long-term member of Francisco Mora’s Afro-Horn Ensemble — an all-star cast of avant-garde jazz musicians draw from the lineages of Sun Ra, Max Roach and other innovators. In 2015 Román released his first solo CD in the USA, a full length recording of batá percussion with poetic evocations of the orishas. In 2021 his multiple recordings with pianist David Virelles resulted in Continuum, hailed by the NY Times as the best jazz album. Ever faithful to the folk wisdom of Cuba, Román continues to play ceremonial batá for the growing initiation communities along the East coast.

Lázaro Galarraga, a native of Havana, Cuba, was a founding member of the National Folklore Ensemble of Cuba (Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba). Among the great percussion and vocal masters, he has recorded and performed with greats such as Cachao, Pío Leiva, Chucho Váldes, Paquito D’Rivera, Herbie Hancock, Al McKibbon and Placido Domingo. He is featured in films like Oscar Valdes’ documentary “La Rumba” (1978), Andy Garcia’s “Cachao: Uno Más” (1980), and the feature film “Dance With Me” (1998). A world-renowned teacher, performing artist, choreographer of Afro- Cuban music, culture and folklore, he currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is the musical director for the Caribbean Crew and the Percussion Artists Workshop (PAWS) Afro-Cuban Folklore ensemble in Los Angeles.

Clemente Medina hails from Havana, where he performed in a carnival group annually. A student of the ENA (National School for the Arts), he performed in Havana theaters, as well as community rumba parties. In the USA, Clemente learned batá rhythms with ‘Román’ Díaz and Pedro Martínez, joining them in the Lincoln Center for “Ochas” in 2014 with Wynton Marsalis. He continues to play in community rites in New York City for the Kongo and Lukumí deities.

Carolina Oliveros is a singer – songwriter from Barranquilla, Colombia, where she performed traditional music with many groups, researching the multitude of rhythms in the bailes cantados of the region including bullerengue, tambora, gaita, and millo. Recently her research extends to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico y Cuba. Now based in New York City, Carolina records, performs and tours with groups she formed including: “Bulla en el Barrio” and “Combo Chimbita.” She is currently developing several musical and dance projects that represent and showcase her indigenous and Afro-descendant musical roots, as well as her cosmovision as an immigrant.

‘Sandy’ Pérez, from the city of Matanzas, Cuba, descends from the Villamils, a well-known spiritual and musical family. Sworn to the drum as a youth, at 16 he commenced a professional career with the legendary group Afro Cuba de Matanzas, and has since performed and toured with Lázaro Ros, Steve Coleman, Yosvany Terry, Miguel Angá, Dafnis Prieto, Olodum, Munequitos de Matanzas, Pedrito Martinez, Román Díaz, and others. He currently resides in Gloucester, Mass.

Danys Pérez ‘La Mora’, from Santiago de Cuba, is a master of Afro-Cuban folkloric dance. A dancer, teacher, ethnologist and choreographer, she specializes in the styles of Oriente Province, a cultural region that infuses Afro-Haitian ideas in an Afro-Cuban context. At 13, she joined Ballet Folklorico Cutumba and toured internationally for 18 years, earning the highest designation of primera bailarina
and primera profesora. In 2005 in New York, ‘La Mora’ founded Oyu Oro, an Afro-Cuban Experimental Dance Ensemble, which has performed at BAM’s DanceAfrica, as well as in Denver, Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Havana and Santiago de Cuba. In 2019 she won a Doris Duke Fellow Award as an artist and activist.

The Organizers:

Dr. Gloria Caballero Roca is an educator, researcher and activist. From Havana, her two decades of global experience includes expertise in translation, Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean studies, Women’s and Gender studies. With two Ph.D.’s, two MA degrees, her mission has been to train critical thinkers who recognize human interdependency and our connectedness with Mother Earth. She is currently an elected official for the Holyoke School Committee, Ward 4.

Ivor Miller studies the cultural history of West Africa and its impact in the Caribbean and the Americas through the largest forced migration in human history. He co-edited “Calabar on the Cross River: Historical and Cultural Studies” (2017) and co-translated Lydia Cabrera’s Cuban dictionary of Cross River phrases as “The Sacred Language of the Abakuá” (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2020), funded by an NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations grant. His book, “Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba” (UP of Mississippi 2009/ CBAAC Lagos 2011) was awarded Honorable Mention by the Association for Africanist Anthropology. A Research Affiliate, African Studies Center at Boston University, a researcher in the Department of History, University of Calabar, Nigeria (2011-2021), he was a Fulbright Scholar to Nigeria (2009-2011)

Recorded June 16, 2025 in Holyoke, MA