Still wondering which candidate will swing the election? Vote with your blue suede platform shoes for the only man in America who brings together the fine art of Elvis impersonation and Brown Power politics, like the righteous spawn of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the King himself. Here’s our e-mail press conference with the candidate […]
Sylvia Pfeiffenberger
Bio: Sylvia Pfeiffenberger lives in Durham and hosts a weekly Latin music show on WXDU.
Posted inMusic
Salsa’s Sun and Lisboa by Night
Fadistas are like Lisbon’s beatniks–nocturnal men and women, dressed in black, who drink red wine in the tavernas, strum fig-shaped guitars and sing about ships that disappear on the horizon. They are the type of goths you might find in a Caravaggio painting. Fado means fate; it’s been compared to rembetika, tango and the blues, […]
Posted inGuides
World Stage without the World
Have you been jonesing for Cubanismo, the Afro-Cuban All Stars, Los Van Van, Chucho Valdes, Ibrahim Ferrer, or Omara Portuondo? Don’t bother checking your concert calendar. They won’t be here. Phrases like “virtual impossibility,” “near impossibility” and “Kafkaesque” come up when you ask presenters and booking agents about bringing Cuban artists into the United States […]
Posted inMusic
Ricardo Lemvo unleashed
Ricardo Lemvo’s life story makes for a dramatic tale–one of exile, journeys across continents and career changes, a story that can be told in broad, colorful strokes–but ultimately it comes down to the simple meeting of creativity and charisma. Born in the Congo, Lemvo grew up next to a bar in Kinshasa and nurtured the […]
Posted inNews
in fiestas
The largest Latin American festival in the Carolinas and one of the best all-round parties in the Triangle, La Fiesta del Pueblo, returns to the N.C. State Fairgrounds this week with two days of food, music, dancing and ninolandia along with traditional Latin American arts and crafts, cultural exhibits and displays from every Latin American […]
Posted inNews
From Balandugu to Durham
A divine informed Mamady Keita’s mother to expect fame for her son before he even left the womb. It wasn’t long before he became known as a rhythm prodigy in his native village of Balandugu in the West African country of Guinea. He played kitchen percussion on his mother’s pots and pans until she bought […]
Posted inMusic
Cuba Oriente heads Down East
Picture surrealist paintings where instead of Dali’s desert of melting timepieces on bare branches, there’s a tropical landscape with U.S. dollars pasted on the shantytown walls. Or, picture trash-strewn sugar cane and tobacco farms painted with a ruthless realism that would make Breughel blush. That’s a sampling of the diversity of art from eastern Cuba […]
Posted inNews
Southern Amistad
“Isn’t America great?” The question hung in the air for a moment as the interpreter glossed it into Spanish, followed by a mild patter of applause from the audience. We weren’t quite sure where he was going with this. “There’s no place better to live than good old Siler City,” he went on. The heavyset […]
Posted inNews
in beats & politics
What is it about bad wars and good protest music? When Antibalas says, “Class! We are here to teach you a lesson on the dance floor,” they are not talking about the foxtrot. Our favorite bulletproof Afrobeat Orchestra this side of Brooklyn leads off the syllabus with the 11-minute title track on their new album, […]
Posted inMusic
Latinos with a mission
Manny Martinez has a mouth on him faster than you can say “Psychofunkapuss”–the name of his last band. The bilingual rapper, born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico, now fronts Los Mocosos, an irreverent, high energy Latin rock band from San Francisco’s Mission District. Their breakthrough 2001 debut on Six Degrees Records, Shades […]
