Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture
Ebrahim Rasheed and Rocío Rayo, members of the cast of boom! performing a scene
Nearly 30 years ago, the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture (HCAC) opened its doors with the vision of meeting the cultural needs of South Bronx residents through music, dance, drama, literature, and the visual arts. HCAC is also committed to affirming, nurturing, and showcasing the cultural traditions of our community. In October 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation awarded HCAC a $150,000 grant to fund a music and dance program entitled the Young Roots Series. The Young Roots Series showcases young masters of the AfroCaribbean tradition who combine elements of jazz, hip-hop, rock and reggaeton with folkloric
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influences. The project matured through HCAC’s two rotating biennial festivals: BomPlenazo, which focuses on the bomba and plena traditions of Puerto Rico, and Quijombo, which focuses on the congo, salve, and guloya traditions of the Dominican Republic. The HCAC also collaborates with the Hostos Humanities Department’s study-abroad program, which reflects HCAC’s mission of fostering the cultural traditions of surrounding communities. Offering an array of international learning opportunities over the past 20 years, the study-abroad program has facilitated students through scholastic training and workshops, didactic historical tours, and cultural immersion in collaboration with
universities in Cuba, Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. “The study-abroad program is a project that Dr. Carlos Sanabria and I nurtured together because we knew that artists, performance, Afro-Caribbean traditions, and students involved in the studyabroad program would benefit from an integrated approach to learning by joining experiential and academic historical context,” said Wallace Edgecombe, Director of the HCAC.“ With the Program we accomplish several things that are integral to the future of HCAC. We cultivate new audiences, we support the artists that grew up in this urban milieu, and we keep important traditions alive.”