The 1st Puerto Rican Bomba Research Conference on September 2-3, 2005

Chicago (Illinois), USA – The 1st Bomba Research Conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois on September 2-3, 2005 (Labor Day weekend) at the Humboldt Park Vocational Center. The conference coincides with Fiesta Boricua, a festival that celebrates Puerto Rican heritage and culture, to be held on Sunday, September 4, 2005.

Sponsored by the Puerto Rican Organization for the Performing
Arts – a Chicago based entity working to promote knowledge of Puerto Rican folk and popular culture – the conference will serve as an opportunity for practitioners and academics from Puerto Rico and the United States to present their research on Bomba, Puerto Rico’s most vital Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance idiom. This conference will allow participants to share resources, promote
responsibility and facilitate cohesion; it will also serve as a foundation upon which future collaborations can be made.

The 1st Bomba Research Conference will build upon the work being conducted in various communities throughout Puerto Rico and the United States. Some of the topics being discussed in the conference include, but are not limited to:

• The commercialization of Bomba
• Bomba recordings
• The cultural and ethnic roots of Bomba
• Regional variations on the Island and in the U.S.
• The urban influence in the U.S.
• Intersections between Bomba and other musical forms
• Bomba as a form of resistance
• Gender roles
• The folklorization of Bomba
• Current issues within the Bomba community

Conference Venue:
Humboldt Park Vocational Center
1645 North California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647-5101

Evening Activities:
• Semi-Formal Baile de Bomba on Friday, September 2nd at 8:00 p.m., location: Coco’s, 2723 W. Division St.
• Bombazo on Saturday, September 3rd at 8:00 p.m., location: La Casita de Don Pedro, 2625 W. Division St.

Anticipated attendance by members of the following: AfriCaribe – Chicago; Alma Moyo – New York City; Arcoiris – Minneapolis; Areito Borincano – San Diego; Ballet Folklorico de Piñones – Piñones, Puerto Rico; Bambula – New York City; Bomba Boricua –
New York City; Cacique y Kongo and Son Boricua – San Francisco Bay Area; Capa Prieta –New York City; Felix Romero y su Teatro de Bomba – New York City; Grupo Yoruba – Rhode Island; Grupo
Yuba – Chicago; Juan Usera y la Tribu – New York City; La Casita Rincon Criollo –New York City; Nuestro Tambo – Chicago; Los Pleneros de la 21 – New York City; Raices de Borinquen –
Philadelphia; Raices de Borinquen – Washington, D.C.; Segunda Quimbamba – Jersey City; Yaya – New York City; Yerba Buena – New York City; and others.

Registration is available from: Melanie A. Maldonado, PO Box 47482, Chicago, IL 60647-7482. Phone: +1 (773) 454.7704. E-mail:
MAMaldonado@sbcglobal.net.

[Roberto Cepeda photo courtesy of Jazz Conexion].