Sintesis & salsa lessons @ SOBs! Free ticket give-away

This is not a radio station.

However, SOBs (Sounds of Brazil) contacted me yesterday to see if I would publicize at El Yuma their "After Work Friday's SalsaGroove Party" in combination with the concert of the Afro-Cuba Rock Fusion group SINTESIS set for this Friday night, April 20. [Door: 6:00 p.m.; Show: 8:00 p.m.]

They also gave me a pair of free tickets to give away to my readers.  (Full disclosure: They also promised me my own pair of tickets!)

So, the first caller - no, I mean the first El Yuma reader who e-mails me with the correct answer to the following Cuban music trivia question will have their name (and that of a guest) put on the guest list for tomorrow night's show.

Question: What are the names of the three kinds of Cuban classic neighborhood ("solar") rumba and how are they different from one another?  (NB: Spelling counts!)

Keep reading below for more info on SOB's After work Friday's SalsaGroove Party and on Sintesis.

Backyard Boogie with Omni in NOLA tonight & an old interview newly translated

The Three Amigos at the Hi-Ho Lounge

As I mentioned in my previous post, Amaury Pacheco and Luis Eligio d'Omni of Omni-Zona Franca are currently in the Big Easy on the most recent leg of their Mákina Total City tour of the U.S.

You should check out their blog for updates on their tour dates in New Orleans but TONIGHT, Thursday, April 19, @ 7:30 p.m. they will give a unique performance @

The Backyard Boogie

215 South Clark Street, Mid-City 

New Orleans

This event is taking place in the backyard (literally) of the home of two of my best friends from Tulane who returned to live and work and start a family in the City that Care Forgot after Katrina.  They are Nikki Thanos and Leo Gorman and you can reach them at: 


E-mail: nikkithanos@gmail.com
Phone: 504-616-1888

Knowing Nikki & Leo, and Luis Eligio and Amaury, as I do - I can assure you that a good, mind-bending and soul-enriching time will be had by all.

Amaury and I, Funkin' It Up, with the Stooges Brass Band.

Finally, as readers of El Yuma might remember, a few weeks ago I put up a 19-minute video interview (with English subtitles) that Yoani Sanchez did late last year with three members of Omni in Havana.  I also provided a link to the text of an extended Spanish-language interview she did with them back in 2007.
  

Now that first interview is available in English as:

"Pushing the Limits: 

Yoani Sanchez Interviews OMNI ZONA FRANCA."

OMNI, the Big Easy, & an old interview newly translated

As I have done each spring break for 5 of the past 6 years, I spent the last 10 days in New Orleans, Louisiana, leading 25 of my top students on a service-learning (aka, trabajo voluntario) adventure.

Here are my students standing atop the levee on the London Avenue canal 

(one of the ones that failed during Katrina)!

We dined in style at Dooky Chase's Creole restaurant in the historic Tremé neighborhood and visited the site at Press and Royal Streets where Homer Plessy attempted to board a segregated passenger train in 1892 (leading to the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson "separate but equal" ruling and 60 years of Jim Crow).

We also did a guided tour of the city's infamous levee system, worked on an organic urban youth farm (Grow Dat! in City Park), and helped build the foundation of a home in Central City with Habitat for Humanity.

I'll have more to report on all that later, but here I want to briefly report on some of the "after hours" highlights of the trip. The first was the Pigeon Town Steppers Easter Sunday second line parade on April 8. You've never experienced the New Orleans spirit or the true neighborhood roots of what we like to think of as a Mardi Gras parade until you witness (and participate in) a second line parade!

The second "after hours" event of note was a fabulous Saturday night concert by the New Orleans Creole vocal sensation John Boutté at dba on Frenchmen Street - winding up both my trip and the day's French Quarter Festival activities.

Boutté's unmistakable voice is featured in the opening credits to the HBO series Tremé singing the appropriately titled "Tremé Song" - which I think he also wrote.  Thought of as "the voice of New Orleans," he has been voted the city that care forgot's best male vocalist the last 6 years in a row.

To learn more about his Creole background and why he gave up a lucrative but boring banking career to become a musician, I highly recommend a two-part interview he did late last year with Bob Edwards (Part 1 and Part 2).

If you like what you hear, you might want to check out his newest album, "All About Everything" which was officially released today, Tuesday, April 17 (though I managed to score an early release copy of it - yes I bought an actual, physical CD - at the Louisiana Music Factory).  Incidentally, during the concert on Saturday night, I discovered to my very pleasant surprise that none other than my fellow Cuba/Nola-file friend Ned Sublette did the translation of the title track from Chico Buarque's original "Sobre Todas as Coisas."

The third "after hours" event that will remain with me for some time to come, and my personal favorite, was the Stooges Brass Band Thursday night jam that takes place every week at the Hi-Ho Lounge.  As you can see from the photo below, a pair of Cuban friends - Amaury Pacheco and Luis Eligio d'Omni of Omni-Zona Franca - had just arrived in town and were able to join us at the ear-ringing, high-energy event.

(You can check out their blog for their tour dates in NOLA, but I recommend their Thursday, April 19, 7:30 p.m. performance @ The Backyard Boogie, 215 South Clark Street,  Mid-City, contact e-mail: nikkithanos@gmail.com and phone: 504-616-1888).

While soaking up the wall of sound at the Hi-Ho, Omni gave the Stooges the best musical compliment possible when one of them screamed at me over the multiple blasting horns on stage and amid the frenzied footwork of the many dancers on the floor that he felt like he was back in Cuba (culturally speaking, of course)!

Finally, let me add this: As readers of El Yuma might remember, a few weeks ago I put up a 19-minute video interview (with English subtitles) that Yoani Sanchez did late last year with three members of Omni.  I also provided a link to the text of an extended Spanish-language interview she did with them back in 2007.  Well, now that first interview is available in English as:

"Pushing the Limits: 

Yoani Sanchez Interviews OMNI ZONA FRANCA."

Un Cubano Más - Eliecer Avila kicks off his new YouTube show

If you understand Cuban Spanish, just sit back and listen as Eliecer Avila holds forth with his incisive critiques about the Cuban press. However, as an aide to those who have trouble with those signature missing "esses," I have taken the liberty to transcribe, translate, and subtitle a small portion of this clip in English. This is a 1 minute, 40 second section that starts at 16:58, ending at 18:38.

If you're a Cuba watcher, you will remember that Eliecer first came to public attention when he took the mic in a public Q&A at Havana's UCI (University of Technology) with the President of the Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcón and asked him a number of pointed and inconvenient questions about voting, travel, and Internet access.

In late November, 2011, he appeared on Twitter @Eliecer_Cuba and Estado de SATS did an extended interview with him here and here.  He even met up with Yoani Sánchez at her home on December 4 for coffee and conversation.  This is the impression he was left with as he stated on Twitter at the time:

"Today I visited the home of Yoani. I was impressed. You can just breathe the creativity, intelligence, love, respect, education, and faith."

Today, I discovered that he has just launched a new YouTube channel/program entitled "Un cubano más" (Just Another Cuban), where he takes digital media into his own hands and creates some hard-hitting citizen journalism. The topic of this first show is... you guessed it:

The Cuban Press.

Imagínate!

Here's the portion of the video subtitled above:

"Not long ago, Cuba carried out... the government calls it "restructuring" of the labor force, where in the first phase - as I understand it - half-a-million workers were laid off.  And what really happened? No one protested?  Everyone was perfectly fine with the decision that they should lose their job?  Remember, we're not questioning whether or not it was necessary or not, or legitimate or not that Cuba restructure these posts, no, no, no...

We are talking about the fact that I have spoken personally with a mountain of people who feel very manipulated... who have been working for any number of years in support of what is called the "revolution," and now they are simply left out of work and, even worse, are not at all in agreement with what is going on.  And they have families to support.  They have wives, elderly relatives at home, children to support.

And all this has caused a problem for a good part of the people.  And where are these people marching?  Simply put, what has happened is that the culture of protest in Cuba is totally extinguished.

It's like the arms of the people have been taken from them.  The arms of popular struggle that the people can never lose.  Any other arms can be under control of the army.  But the right to protest, the right to express one's opinion in masse is an arm that the people can never relinquish because afterward, getting back that right is a problem."

Does economic reform inevitably lead to political change?

Economic vs. Political Change in Cuba

The NYT's Deputy Foreign Editor Marc Lacey and Harvard University’s Jorge I. Domínguez discuss whether Cuba can continue to evolve economically, but stay the course politically.

(UPDATED w/ subtitles) OZF in NYC: Review, interview, & reaction to Pope's visit to Cuba

Today, Luis Eligio D'Omni & Amaury Pacheco, two members of Omni-ZonaFranca paid me a visit in my office at Baruch College.  Completely by chance, their visit coincided with that of Enny Pichardo, a reporter from NTN24, who had come to interview me about the Pope's visit to Cuba.

Although he had come to get a sound-byte from me, he asked to interview Luis Eligio and Amaury also, who were more than happy to oblige.  As you can see from the clips I made with my iPhone below, his exchanges with them were much more fruitful and powerful than anything I could say.

My commentary came primarily from the head, while theirs came as much from the heart as the head - y sin pelos en la lengua.

Each of the two quick, 8-minute interviews is quite moving and shows the valiance and intelligence that make Omni so fascinating and unique.  Just imagine, Cubans talking of Gandhi and St. Francis of Assisi, instead of politics and nationalism!

For NTN 24's version of the interviews with brief clips of each of us, see here.

Luis Eligio (This video now has English subtitles).


Amaury (with English subtitles too)

I'd also like to point your attention (if you read Spanish) to a penetrating interview that the Cuban-American academic and musician, Maria Isabel Alfonso, did with Amaury Pacheco.  Alfonso attended their first show in NYC last Friday at Baruch and also wrote a short review that introduces the interview. She really captures their gracious spirit and unique, open-hearted approach to Cuba's dilemma.

Finally, OMNI will be at NYU's Kimmel Center (Room 802), part of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), today, Wednesday, March 28, from 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. (60 Washington Square South) presenting yet another variation on their show, "Mákina Total City," this time co-sponsired by NYU's Cuban American Student Association.

They will also be a NuBlu with DelExilio this Thursday night @ 9:00 p.m.

La calle es un animal! Omni-Zona Franca @ Baruch College

If you happen to live in any of the cities remaining on Omni's first-ever U.S. tour (three shows this week in NYC; Friday in Providence, RI; Washington, DC, April 1-10; New Orleans, April 11-30; and Miami in May), I urge you to check them out. Their show is sure to blow your mind with a sampling of the little known world of independent Cuban art, music, and poetry.

Last Friday night, March 23, they presented an amazingly original and moving show at Baruch College that was enthusiastically received by the diverse audience of students and guests from across the NY metro region. It included a seamless flood of evocative, provocative images; powerful poetic expression; percussive sound made on three ancient Cuban typewriters; ecstatic dance and movement; and their own special brand of hip hop they call "free hop."

The three members of the group, Luis Eligio D'Omni, Amaury Pacheco, and David D'Omni, use a poetic, performative, artistic language, in a spirit of the search for truth, engagement with the public, and open dialogue very different from the overheated polemics we are used to hearing about Cuba.  As Rolando Pulido writes in Spanish here, they bring much light to the public without any of the heat and hate we often find accompanying Cuban issues.

After seeing them perform first-hand myself and having the opportunity to talk with them for hours on end during our treks around Manhattan, I'd say that to approximate their unique style and sensibility you'd have to take the social and political edge of the 90s-era hip-hop group Public Enemy, mix it with the selfless, communitarian spirituality of Gandhi, throw in the artistic sensibility of Basquiat and Yoko Ono, add the digital-experimental fusion of musicians like Moby and Bjork, along with the rooted, liberationist vibe of Bob Marley, and the soundscapes of Bobby McFerrin, and top that off with the poetic linguistic sensitivity of Cuba's Lezama Lima, and the fierce and fantasmagorical creative reinvention of Reinaldo Arenas...

Talk about multi-disciplinary!

For a few brief previews of their current show, "Mákina Total City," take a look at these three clips/video montages from Friday night's show and one rehearsal on Thursday (2 minutes each above and 9 minutes here below).

Omni-Zona Franca at New York's Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Members of Omni-Zona Franca, David D'Omni, Amaury Pacheco, and Luis Eligio D'Omni on the roof terrace of my co-op "In The Heights" (Washington Heights) with the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge in the background.

So, yesterday at long last I finally met the three members of Omni-Zona Franca, David, Amaury, and Luis Eligio, who are touring the U.S. this spring and who will take Baruch College by storm tomorrow.  The event is free and open to the public and would be a great way to start your weekend with a mind-bending bang! There will be music, poetry, and Q&A.  We will also be serving refreshments (Latin fare) so please go to the event page at Facebook and rsvp so we can get an accurate head count so there is enough food!

Together, Zoya Kocur and I introduced the guys to the finer points of the NYC Subway system, the flowering springtime parks of Northern Manhattan, as well as some of the city's vertical architecture.  They also marveled at the views of the GW Bridge and the Palisades across the Hudson River.

Late in the day, we met up again at the Gandhi Statue in Union Square where we also very appropriately witnessed the "Million Hoodie March" protesting the killing of Trayvon Martin.  To their great pleasure I also introduced Omni to the professor and performance artist Coco Fusco - whose work they know and admire greatly.

However, an incomparable day soon morphed into an unforgettable night as we made our way down to the Lower East Side's Nuyorican Poets Cafe.  Luckily, we got there just early enough to sign David and Luis Eligio up as 2 of the 20 poets that would compete in the evening's poetry slam.  And, as luck would have it, the only spots left were the opening and closing acts - so all comers were treated to a night that began and ended with the magical potion that these multi-disciplinary poets brew back in Alamar and have brought to share with us in Nueva York!

See below for my amateurish Flipcam and iPhone videos of their performances.  As you can see, each of them slowly won over the crowd with their earnest presence and passionate palabras.

Here's David doing a version of "Terapia y Oracion."  (Go here to see a much more professional version recorded by Omni themselves last night and here to see another version done in Cuba.)



And here's Luis Eligio's show-stoping finale: "Clara."  (Go here for a sharper version of this same performance recorded by Luis Eligio himself and here to see him and David perform the same number in Havana at the Centro Wilfredo Lam.)

Church and State in Cuba, Monday, 4/23, 12:30 PM

Church and State in a Changing Cuba

Roberto Veiga González

Editor, Espacio Laical

Havana Catholic Magazine

This special talk will be in Spanish!

Monday, April 23, 12:30 PM

The Graduate Center, Skylight Room

365 Fifth Avenue (@ 34th Street)

If Cuba needs a [tech] revolution, who should be its revolutionaries?

When I received the invitation for the following Heritage Foundation / Google Ideas conference late last week, I responded with the following message to the organizers:

"Wow! This sounds like it will be very interesting. However, I still think the best (and easiest) thing we can do to achieve greater freedom in Cuba is end the travel ban and get rid of the embargo. This won't end the Cuban government's internal embargo but I think it will make it much harder to enforce and remove their favorite whipping boy and scapegoat from the chessboard (if I can mix my metaphors)."