The Baton Foundation, Inc., in partnership with the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History and A Través, will host a film screening and facilitated discussion about Africa’s influence on the Iberian Peninsula and the music of Andalusia (southern Spain)—flamenco. This program is free and open to the public.
Today, Europe’s southernmost borders are shielded with barbed wire and fences. But once, a trade flourished there that forcibly kidnapped and enslaved thousands of African women, men, and children.
Commercial exploitation of American and Caribbean colonies brought Africans to Spain to be sold into slavery. Over time, despite living in an oppressive society wrought with racial prejudices, the enslaved population created spaces of self-expression. Music and dance were fundamental elements of this expression and the most important affirmation of its identity. As the Black population began to disappear from Spain in the late-19th century, so too did its contributions to an extraordinary art form–flamenco. Miguel Ángel Rosales’ film, Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories, finally tells their story–leading us to question a core element of Spanish identity and culture.
K. Meira Goldberg is a flamenco performer, teacher, choreographer and historian. She teaches at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and is Scholar in Residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music at the City University of New York (CUNY) Grad Center. Ms. Goldberg has taught and guest lectured at Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, Flamenco Festival International in Albuquerque, Ballet Hispánico, Bryn Mawr, Princeton, Duke, Juilliard, The New School, and Smith College. Goldberg is also the author of, Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco.