Highlighting D.C. region’s diverse and large Caribbean populations, this daylong program shared Caribbean music and dance through a series of intergenerational conversations with artists, community leaders, and producers. Presentations highlighted efforts to bridge communities, honor history and heritage, and recognize the power of cultural hybridity and change.
These sessions of On the Move were coordinated by Camila Bryce-Laporte, a D.C.-based independent scholar and curator of Caribbean communities, in collaboration with artists and community leaders from the greater D.C. metropolitan region. In the past she has worked with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a presenter and curatorial consultant.
Caribbean Celebratory Dance
Vanessa Eugene, Haitian dancer, choreographer
Suzanne Matthews-Williams, president of CAIO, dancer, choreographer
Kombo Omalara, Trinidadian drummer and master stilt-walker
Dr. Norma Small-Warren, director of Grupo Folklorico de Panama
Adrian Valdivia, co-director and co-founder of DC Casineros (Cuban dance)
Rhythm of a People: History of Caribbean Music in Washington, D.C.
Hollis “Flash” Lashley, “Trinbagonian” educator, musician, writer
Sydney March, Jamaican poet, essayist, musician, journalist
Von Martin, president and host of Caribbeana on WPFW, Caribbean cultural historian
Serge Bellegarde, Haitian Creole Academy charter member
Caribbean Fusion in Contemporary Music and Dance
Vanessa Eugene, Haitian dancer, choreographer
Anthony “DJ Clean” McLean, Trinidadian American DJ, producer
Khandeya Sheppard, steel panist, composer, arranger for Pan Lara
Adrian Valdivia, co-director and co-founder of DC Casineros (Cuban dance)
