CIMARRON FESTIVAL  PROGRAMME 
13th - 22nd May 2010

13th May 7.30pm Official Festival Launch: (free event)
***Please note that due to circumstances beyond our control, our venue for the launch event has now moved to:
ONEKX 120 Cromer Street WC1H 8BS (King's Cross) (only one block away from the original venue)
7.30pm Talk by renowned poet and writer Pedro Perez Sarduy from Cuba on his novel  "The Maids From Havana": based on his mother's life stories about pre-and post- revolutionary Havana. This is the first novel by a contemporary Afro-Cuban writer on family life in Cuba.

14th May SOAS University Room FG08
7pm Afro-Peruvian dance workshop  (free event)
Led by Flavia Chevez: a great exponent of Afro-Peruvian dance and culture, and one of the very few Afro-Peruvian artists based in the UK, back in her home country she was one of the leading dencers for renowned national dance companies such as "Teatro y Danzas Negros del Peru", "Conjunto Nacional de Folklore" (de Peru) and "Expresion Negra Peruana"
SOAS University: Thornaugh St. WC1H 0XG (Nearest tube Russel Square)

15th May @ ONEKX 120 Cromer Street WC1H 8BS  (Kings Cross)
Children's percussion and dance workshops (free event)
1.30pm-3pm
Afro Brazilian dance workshop for children
Led by Paulette Robin
3.30pm-5pm
Percussion workshop for children
Led by Venezuelan percussionist Wilmer Sifontes


17th May  Upstairs at The Ritzy bar Brixton (free event)
7pm Afro-Colombian drumming  workshop
The Ritzy Cold Harbour Lane SW2 1JG

18th May
7pm @ SOAS University KLT Main Building  (free event)
Film Los Hijos De Benkos By Lucas Silva (with English subtitles)
In Palenque de San Basilio, maroon village founded in the XVI century, the SEXTETO TABALA which means "drums of war" in Afro-Colombian creole ,has been playing "Palenquero Sound" for over 50 years. However, the story of Palenque does not end there, from the trunk of the tradition the branches of modernity are pushing at a fast pace. Today the maroons from palenque invade the nearby big cities of Cartagena and Barranquilla, where a new black Colombian music has been born: "Champeta" a hot mix of Zairian Soukous, Afro-Colombian rhythms and Caribbean influences such as Socca, Calypso and Reggae. It is an exclusive music of the city's poor and disinherited, that has swept away everything in its path. Salsa and Cuban sounds were totally forgotten, the African music was the detonator of an extraordinary musical movement awakening the fire of a hidden ancestral memory. The kings of Champeta have no palace, their kingdom courts are the beaches and the streets of Cartagena. They are the Kngs of an other marginal Colombia, that the rest of the country ignores: the "African Colombia".   
SOAS Univesrsity: Thornough St. WC1H 0XG
Nearest tube: Russel Square

19th May
SOAS University Room B102 Brunei Building  (free event)
7pm  Afro-Cuban percussion workshop
8.30pm
Cuban Hip-hop The Underground Revolution: The influence and development of Hip-hop within the Cuban culture is an authentic expression of social awareness. Today its linguistic and music creativity promotes and encourages African identity, consciousness and responsibility.
Lecture by spoken word artist and hip-hop activist Amehel Incera Cepeda

20th May

6.30pm SOAS University Room B111 Brunei Building  (free event)
Capoeira: The history of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art:
During the nineteenth Century Creole slaves living in port cities of Brazil  developed
a combat game called Capoeira. Even though repressed by the authorities, it spread to the free lower classes during the nineteenth century, and to the rest of Brazil during the twentieth century. Capoeira is now widely practiced by hundreds of thousands of people in every continent. It consists of a combination of acrobatics, rhythms, combat dance and theatrical performance, all of which maintain a distinctive Afro-Brazilian character. Just how many of its characteristics are 'African' is the object of much debate.
By Matthias Rohrig Senior lecturer at Essex University

21st May
The Bolivar Hall   56 Grafton Way W1T 5DL (Warren Street)
6.30pm
Afro-Venezuelan percussion workshop led by Wilmer Sifontes
8pm
Talk and short documentary about the ritual and procession of San Benito
Led by Carlos Chirinos  (free event)


22nd May  @ ONEKX 120 Cromer Street WC1H  8BS (Kings Cross)
Percussion and dance workshops for adults (free event)
1.30-3pm
Afro-Colombian dance workshop

3.30-5pm
Afro-Cuban dance workshop
Led by Cubanadanza, the only Afro-Cuban dance company of its kind in the UK.
You will not be disappointed with this wonderful dance workshop lead by some of London's most expperienced and professional Cuban dancers.


22nd May 7pm-2am 
GRAND FINALE OF MUSIC AND DANCE ***(Paid event £5)
CONWAY HALL - 25 Red Lion Square WC1H nearest tube  Holborn
£5 entrance to contribute to paying the artists.

Doors open 7pm

Programme starts 7.30pm

Cubana Danza (Cuba)

Flavia Chevez
and special guests Ollantay dance company (Peru)

Amehel Incera Cepeda (Cuba)

Afro-American Project (Venezuela)

Afro-Brazilian group  (Brazil)

Conjunto Sabroso (Colombia/UK)

***2am CLOSE  ***