25th Afro Roots Fest to be held in Gainesville and at UF featuring free concert, workshops
The 25th Afro Roots Fest will be held in Gainesville featuring workshops, lectures, panel discussions with artists and a free community concert.
Workshops, panel discussions and lectures will be held from 12-7 p.m. Friday at the University of Florida School of Theatre and Dance and will include ticketed song, dance and drum workshops, according to a press release.
The workshops will feature percussionists Roman Diaz and Sandy Perez, singers Ernesto “El Gato” Gatell and Alain Fernandez, dancer Yudisleidy Valdes and lecturer Ivor Miller.
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The free concert for all ages will be held from 7-10 p.m. Saturday at the Bo Diddley Downtown Community Plaza at 111 E. University Ave. It will feature Jacare Brazil, UF Afro Pop Ensemble, Titos Sompa and Odara Conjunto Folklorico, according to the release.
Registration must be completed no later than Thursday (April 6) at bit.ly/ARFG2023.
“ARF (Afro Roots Fest) is a traveling world music festival that celebrates the evolution of African cultures in our communities,” said Jose Elias, founder and executive director of Community Arts & Culture, which sponsors the event.
Elias said this is the second time his organization has co-presented the festival with UF and that he believes “this relationship gives the program a perfect opportunity to create a festival atmosphere that has more of an academic feel to it.”
Other cities that have hosted the festival include Miami, Miami Beach, Doral, Hollywood, Homestead, Islamorada, Florida City, Key Largo, Key West and Jupiter, Elias said.
The workshops' tickets range from $15-150, and there is a 50 percent discount available to Florida residents by using the promo code “FloridaResident” upon check out and presenting a valid Florida ID at check-in, Elias said.
There is a very limited amount of tickets available, and those who want to attend virtually must use the virtual ticket option on the festival’s Eventbrite ticket hub, Elias said.
This year’s festival will be its first time ever convening Afro Cuban percussion and dance in collaboration with UF’s School of the Arts, Elias said, adding that the collaboration will feature Odara, an all-star group of musicians curated for this occasion.
“We've celebrated Afro Cuban culture at the festival throughout the years, and felt this was a way to honor the artists who participate,” Elias said. “The audience gets an opportunity to engage the performers in both an educational, and entertaining atmosphere. It also serves as a way for us to fulfill our mission of presenting the arts as a tool for education.”
The Center for Arts, Migration and Entrepreneurship (CAME) in the UF College of the Arts serves as an innovative hub for research, scholarship and community-driven engagement around the arts and entrepreneurship — with a specific focus on migratory and diasporic communities, said Osubi I. Craig, director of CAME.
"The emerging collaboration with CAME and Community Arts and Culture builds on their shared work on diasporan culture and meet the College of the Arts goal to serve as a resource for enriching arts programming experiences for our local communities," Craig said. "Afro-Cuban song and dance is an important part of the cultural experience of many, not only in Miami, but also here in Gainesville, and we look forward to helping present that to our community."
The mission of Community Arts & Culture is to foster an appreciation and understanding of a vast assortment of cultures by presenting the arts as a tool for education for individuals of all ages and social backgrounds through music-based workshops, lectures and performances. Community Arts and Culture provides under-served neighborhoods with a platform to participate in cultural arts programs and experiences and nurtures an array of local and international musical artists that exemplify the diversity of South Florida, Elias said.
Elias said he hopes the festival will have a lasting impact on the lives of those who attend.
I want them to leave with “The feeling that they just witnessed the healing power of music, and how memorable of an experience it was,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville and UF will host 25th Afro Roots Fest April 7-8
