Past Festivals

Through their folkloric mystique, otherworldly psychedelia, and a dash of enigmatic punk, Combo Chimbita catapults the sacred knowledge of our forebears into the future. Their second studio album and Anti- Records debut sees the visionary quartet drawing from ancestral mythologies and musical enlightenment to unearth the awareness of Ahomale, the album’s cosmic muse. Comprised of Carolina Oliveros’ mesmeric contralto, illuminating storytelling and fierce guacharaca rhythms, Prince of Queens’ hypnotic synth stabs and grooving bass lines, Niño Lento’s imaginative guitar licks, and Dilemastronauta’s powerful drumming, the lure and lore of Combo Chimbita comes into existence.

The legend begins with their first EP, 2016’s El Corredor del Jaguar, and followed up with the occult psychedelia of Abya Yala. In 2019’s Ahomale, the New York-by-way-of-Colombia troupe fuse the perennial rhythms of the Afro-Latinx diaspora with a modern-day consciousness, while tracing the prophetic traditions of our ancestry.

With the help of producer Daniel Schlett (The War on Drugs, Modest Mouse), the group’s rootsy experimental alchemy and metal strangeness take centerfold. Oliveros howls, yowls and chirps with gut-wrenching emotion, like on the languid mirage of “El Camino,” or plaintive frenzy of the title track. Whether rock raw and soulful or bewitching like a shaman in a spiritual ceremony, her voice is always a multifaceted wonder.

The Eastern Medicine Singers Drum Group was created by Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe. The founding drummers started in 2008 at the RI Indian Council in Providence. The group originally started to assist a native youth dance program. The Eastern Medicine Singers were then asked to sing Algonquin language songs at the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe Powwow in 2009 and the drum career then took off. They primarily do old style eastern songs that they write themselves or handed down old style eastern songs.

Gund Kwok, the only Asian Women Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe in the United States, was established in February of 1998 to give Asian women an opportunity to express their creativity, power and strength through performing the lion and dragon dances. 

Traditionally, women’s power, strength and intelligence have been unacknowledged and hidden from public view. An old Chinese saying, “A heroine will not admit defeat to the hero” expresses women’s hidden power.

She has effectively utilized the power of the arts and culture to bring the community together by raising awareness on the importance of diversity and she has empowered the youth by employing them and teaching them about their roots and cultures. Her professional background includes Arts administration, Marketing, Community Outreach, Multimedia production, small and large scale Event planning. Robles is Co-founder and Director of the Veronica Robles Cultural Center that supports community action and economic growth in East Boston and offers Latin American arts and culture programming and provides jobs for youth.

Veronica Robles is a woman of courage and principles; as a cancer survivor she lives her life to the fullest, filled with joy, passion, and love. Her work honors the memory of her only daughter who passed away as a teenager.

Alsarah is a singer, songwriter, bandleader and a somewhat reluctant ethnomusicologist. Born in Khartoum, Sudan, she relocated to Yemen with her family before abruptly moving to the USA, finally feeling most at home in Brooklyn, NY where she has been residing since 2004. She is a self-proclaimed practitioner of East-African Retro-Pop music. Working on various projects, she has toured both nationally and internationally.

Alsarah & the Nubatones were born out of many dinner conversations between Alsarah and Rami El Aasser about nubian ‘songs of return’, modern migration patterns and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt. A common love for the richness of pentatonic sounds, and shared migration experiences, expanded the conversation to include Armenian – american oud player Haig manoukian and french born togo raised bass player Mawuena Kodjovi.

They mix together the old and the new, the big city and the rolling countryside, bombardinos and autotune: cumbia, dancehall, afrobeat, salsa dura, soukous, champeta, kompa, hip hop, coupé decalé, currulao, and much more.

Trained in eastern and western classical music, the members have been professionally performing qawwali for the past 15 years. With conservative growth and heightened attention to quality, Riyaaz Qawwali has performed across the continental U.S., in Panama, and debuted in Europe in 2017.

Powerful Haitian, Brazilian and West African rhythms infuse Zili’s original creations and traditional folksongs. Reconnecting Haitian mizik rasin, Jamaican roots reggae, Afro-Brazilian samba, Afro-Cuban son, and African American spirituals, blues, jazz, and neo soul, Zili Misik honors its influences while creating a sound that is uniquely its own: New World Soul.