Dancing at the Palladium Ballroom (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
The new exhibition, American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music looks at Latinos’ roles in shaping U.S. popular music through the lens of five American cities: New York, L.A., San Francisco, San Antonio, and Miami. The show addresses themes of migration, cultural cross pollination, and racial politics, and explores how social and musical intermixing helped spawn an array of musical genres including the Salsa, the Boogaloo, Chicano punk, and Reggaeton.
Last week I spoke with curator Marisol Berrios-Miranda about American Sabor. We discussed the origins of Salsa music, the scene at New York’s Palladium Ballroom, where performers like Tito Puente became famous in the 1950s, as well as the ways that food has influenced Latin music.
Playlist
Bartees Cox is a songwriter and producer who spent years playing in bands in Brooklyn before making the move to Washington, DC, where his solo project, Bartees Strange, took focus and grew - from an album of reinterpretations of The National’s music to his stunning full-length, genre-bending… | watch
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The March edition of Spotlight on the City features bands and musicians from Birmingham, Alabama. | listen
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Ben details his experience of contracting the coronavirus back in late February/early March of 2020, before lockdowns shut NYC down. He also shares how the city and local indie rock scene he’s a part of reacted to the pandemic. | watch
The Helen Keller hoax possesses the toxicity of a traditional conspiracy theory even if it doesn't quite fit the definition. | read