WORKSHOP DATES: FREE with online RSVP

• MON, NOV 14, 7 PM - CANCELED
• TUES, NOV 15, 7 PM 
• WED, NOV 16, 7 PM 

Flushing Town Hall requires all visitors, performers, and staff to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and matching identification; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety

Flushing Town Hall and the NY Son Jarocho Collective present a series of Son Jarocho workshops with artists from the Mexico-based ensemble, Caña Dulce Caña Brava. Join us to learn the jarana (Son Jarocho rhythm guitar), leona (Son Jarocho bass guitar), and zapateado (Son Jarocho percussive dance). Workshops are free and open to the public. Prior knowledge of Son Jarocho is recommended but not required.

These workshops will be led by Raquel Palacios Vega (jarana), Anna Arismediz (leona), and Violeta Romero (zapateado), from the Mexico-based ensemble Caña Dulce Caña Brava. These three teachers have years of experience performing and teaching in community settings as well as national and international stages.

Son Jarocho is the traditional music and dance from Veracruz, Mexico, and is a genre that lends itself to community building and audience participation through the Fandango, a celebration where people gather to play, sing, and dance. This style's main roots are located in the Spanish migration to Mexico during the colonial period, which brought with it sounds, rhythms, and instrumentation from the African Diaspora, Roma communities, and Arab populations from the Iberian Peninsula. This mix of cultures, combined with Mexican indigenous musical traditions, gave birth to Son Jarocho in the early 17th century. These days, Son Jarocho is performed throughout Mexico, US, Canada, South America, Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Japan. On the US East Coast, Son Jarocho has grown in the past 15 years thanks to community organizers and Son Jarocho practitioners can be found in New York, Boston, Charlottesville, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. The Annual Son Jarocho Festival features a week of workshops, panel discussions, and special events, closing with a series of performances on the stage of Flushing Town Hall by local East Coast artists and guest performers from Mexico. 

These workshops are sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.