The Jarocho Rhythm and Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba Workshop was super fun! Led by special guest maestras: Ivelisse Diaz, Amarilys Rojas, Milvia Pacheco, Jade Power Sotomayor, Denise Solis, Monica Rojas and Iris Viveros. As someone who has never connected music to people this way, as someone who is usually not comfortable dancing, and as someone who is not experienced Puerto Rican and Latin culture, this was extremely impactful to me. Usually I see music as a very personal experience, but this performance has shown me how collaborative and communal most music in the world is. Everyone in the room became a performer and everyone had and has a piece of this great story to tell. Very beautiful experience to know that I have been a part of a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

Jaylynn Lyons; Group 13

Following more introductions, we lead into Bomba. After watching a short video in class about it, I was very excited to experience it live. Bomba is a traditional dance and musical style that originated in Puerto Rico. Bomba is described to be a presentation that shows the connection between the drummer and the dancer. The drummer is required to follow the dancer in their movements. The rhythm that was instructed for majority of the session was named “Bombiando.” The participants were engaged and enlightened by the experience by following the instructor’s movements. People of all ages that joined in Bomba expressed an energy that spread throughout the whole room. To “spice it up” the last four minutes of Bomba was the rhythm called “Quembe.” Different from “Bombiando” the rhythm was faster and included a vocal portion from the dancers to intensify the emotions that radiated throughout the dance. This was an unforgettable moment to watch a community come together to dance and release feelings of excitement and love. 

Alexandra Parker, AFFRAM 337, Group 12

Live Blog #1

During the 2019 Women Who Rock (Un)Conference, guest were welcomed by a center stage decorated with a vast assortment of vibrant inviting colors and pieces of cultural art that reflect diversity within the community.The overall main goal of the Women who Rock project “is to engage scholars, musicians, activist, etc. to learn more about the role of women in popular music and the creation of various culture scenes and social justice movements”. The conference opened with a choreographed dance involving vigorous foot stomping and chants that displayed confidence, projecting a sense of strong female power through the sounds and rhythm. Following the opening dance, the guest were then invited to join a workshop involving a passionate bomba drummers where we were given the opportunity to connect with their community through the inclusion of being welcomed into their dance. The WWR (Un)Conference succeeded in creating an environment that feels inclusive in the sense of building a stronger community.

Live Blog #2

An acknowledgement of diverse and different cultural traditions, dance, and music was heavily present in the theme of the WWR (Un)Conference. There was high energy in the atmosphere coming from the performers and the audience who were filled with enthusiasm as the guests were dancing to traditional Puerto Rican Bomba music. Welcoming everyone to be included in this form of tradition that represents a bigger meaning of culture, rhythm, and confidence, seemed to give everyone a sense of empowerment within themselves. The Women Who Rock organization has seemed to have reached a successful milestone that presents to the public that the power music and dance is not just exclusive to particularly assigned groups, but within the whole community entirely. Creating stronger bonds that gives individuals a true safe haven where they feel like they can belong somewhere and make a significant difference in social justice and movements.         

Everyone is getting down as they learn how Latin-American dance moves. Half of the room is dedicated to learning and performing Latin-American dances while the other half is for mingling. The dancers are practically playing a game of Simon Says as they learn dance moves.  One of our group members decided to join in and felt like she was part of a larger community. It’s a great atmosphere to be in. If you’re not interested in dancing, you can talk to the vendors and people who just came to enjoy the event.

Vendors come from all over. In Seattle, there’s not a lot of places where can connect to their cultural and ethnic roots, so the Women Who Rock (Un)Conference is a place where people can be their authentic selves.

Tessa Achevarra for AFRAM 337 Group #11

#1 Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba

The drums are percussive as the workshop gets into full swing. Sitting on the floor at the back, I can see feet stomping and pivoting in time with the beat of the drums, laughter and cheering every so often when the group nails a move. With the instructor at the front and a group mimicking their moves, to an onlooker, this workshop may look like a dance-fitness class. However, It is clear that this is so much more; the dancers are “dancing to the music, and with the music, and making music.” The dancers are engaged, they are a living organism. The room is filled with ordered, chaotic energy. The women are clearly wonderful teachers, since the dancers seem to become more and more cohesive. But of course, who better to teach bomba than actual Afro-Puerto Rican women?

#2 Feminist messaging

There are reminders of feminism everywhere. The air is charged with it. On the walls are posters with messages in Spanish like “autocuidado” and “todas aprendemos de la experiencia de una;” “self-care” and “we all learn from the experience of one.” These messages are printed with images of women and flowers to invoke the feminine and all of the pronouns are feminine even when they might otherwise be masculine. As the (un)conference progresses, I feel the power of these messages. Music is a form of self-care and especially empowering for women; we are all learning about new concepts and ideas from women who practice them regularly. Everyone here is eager to open up to new experiences and the women who help us to experience.

#1

The conference started off with a bang! Mikayla, an American Indian Studies student at the University of Washington, opened the conference with a beautiful blessing of the building and a wonderful history of the land that we are on. She made us remember that we need to continue to acknowledge that those walking around the world today are not the first to have walked on the land, so it is important to be grateful for everything that those have done before us. She also let us know that she had either smashed or burned sage around the building in order to cleanse the building and the people entering so that this conference can be full of happiness and power for women who rock; I think it did the job. After Mikayla’s blessing, there were the introductions and the acknowledgements of everyone who has contributed to this day.

#2

Though I am writing this a bit after it finished, I felt like it could not be left out of this blog. There was a dance, well, a poem, well, no, a song; it was all of it and none of it all at once. I would describe it as an interpretive dance that went along with a poem. A poem that taught you to never forget where you come from. Milvia and Iris did an amazing job in conveying the power and the strength that came with their performance. Though I did not understand most of it because it was in Spanish, I did feel the power coming from the way they stomped their feet on the stage and the way that Emilia raised and lowered her voice to the beat of their feet. You could hear a pin drop, everyone was in awe. This performance definitely paved the way for a great conference.

When the first dance was complete we all went ere asked to help love the chairs and the stadium to create more space. After about a 5 minute intermission everyone had fun energy while we were patiently waiting for the next activity to start. When we all came together afterwards we began to do a full group dance with anyone and everyone. At first the performers were the only ones dancing but little by little more people began to get involved. It is an awesome experience and the rhythm we danced to was called ”Seega”. It is an important dance for their performers culture which is why they seem so excited about sharing some of their culture with the rest of us in attendance

I am now learning about the bomba which is an Afro Puerto Rican tradition where dancers challenge the drummer. It is important to gain the connection and to never lose the connection. The drums are getting louder and louder, and everyone is starting to clap and sway. It is great seeing people and especially women of all ages and ethnicities gathering together and uniting through dance, especially on such a beautiful day. This by far is my favorite part of the event because of the participation from many people. I can tell everyone is much more excited and feeling confident in their own skin which is what so much of this event is about. The dancers are making music with the bomba and they are connected with everything that is happening here. While I was dancing I was feeding off of everyone’s energy, truly connecting with them and getting in touch with the afro puertican dance. This has definitely got me more excited for my upcoming trip to Puerto Rico next week!

As we are now getting into the dance more and more, we are seeing a variety of different movements and emotions being involved in it. The lady talking explains that they are talking with the music and making the music with their dance. And that the dances make the music into something even bigger than it is. She explains that they are not just dancing around but they are moving in a way that is meaningful. The unity of the people coming together makes it something really special. They can have meaning in dance that allows for them to not even use words to express how they are feeling. She explains that you give your thanks to the drum which means you are giving thanks to the people who came before you as well that did what they could to make all of this happen all the time ago too.

The first dance they do consists of staring at each other from only a couple feet away. They both begin by stomping their feet in unison while one of the dancers speaks in a different language while both dancers continue their unified stomping. The stomping then increases in tempo and rigor while the speaking also intensifies. The dancer doing the speaking goes into what almost looks like a solo with the other dancer beingused as background. The dancer turns into the second background dancer stomping to create a beat or sound for the first dancer where she begins to do quick, sporadi dance movement that seem to go hang in hand with the beat being made by the other dancers stomping. They both are still continuing to look at each other throughout the whole dance creating a sense of connection between the two almost as if one dancer can’t complete their performance without the other there