Speakers
Yvette Martínez
Yvette Martínez is a performer, dancer, drummer, and teaching artist. She is the president and Co-founder of One World Arts, Inc., a non-profit organization emphasizing cultural performances, concerts, and special presentations at theaters, colleges, universities, and a wide array of community festivals. She was an early member of Los Pleneros de la 21 as a dancer. Yvette is also the Co-founder and Artistic Director of ¡Retumba! (Resound!), a multi-ethnic music and dance ensemble founded in March of 1981. Interweaving traditional rhythms, and beautiful ancient melodies, with their own unique interpretations and presenting the music and dance of Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. ¡Retumba! Brings to light the importance of people from various cultures working together, demonstrating the similarities and links of our shared traditions.
Sandra García Rivera
Sandra García Rivera is an award-winning poet, literary host, and soulful Boricua chanteuse. An accomplished vocalist, she's performed and recorded with world music, hip-hop, and Latin jazz artists including William Cepeda, John Santos, Bobby Sanabria, Jerry Medina, Zakir Hussain, Xiomara Fortuna, Rico Pabón, La Mixta Criolla, Yaya, Yerbabuena, Ecos de Antaño, The Welfare Poets, Bryan Vargas & Ya Está, and The Femme Nameless Afrobeat Ensemble. She is the author of the poetry chapbooks Divination of the Mistress, Shoulder High, and That Kiss; the recipient of a 2019 BRIO Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Bronx Council of the Arts; and has been published in numerous anthologies and national literary journals including the LA Review, Centro Journal, Hostos Review, Urban Latino Magazine, and Caribbean Erotic. She’s mentored more than a thousand children and edited numerous anthologies, motivated by Piri Thomas, “Every child is born a poet.”
Luz Rodríguez
Luz Rodríguez began her dance training at Seward Park, HS under the tutelage of Lillian Rouche, one of the original dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Co. She taught dance at the Fresh Air Fund camps and was awarded a dance scholarship at Pratt Institute. She later transferred to NYU where she was a member of the Kaleidoscope Dancers and received her bachelor’s degree in dance therapy in 1982. She learned the Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric dance and traditions in her formative years from Grupo Cemi led by Maria (Angie) Hernandez; Grupo Folklorico led by Margie Rivas in the Lower East Side of NY during the arts & social justice renaissance in the 1970s. She co-founded Baile Boricua, a bomba/plena dance company in the mid-’70s alongside Magda Echevarria. Baile Boricua danced at the historic fiestas patronales de Loiza in 1981 and was instrumental in teaching the dance form at Hunter College where she inspired the next generation of bomba/plena dance companies, such as Retumba Con Pie (now One World Arts), led by Yvette Martínez and Nancy Friedman. Luz currently serves as the Lead Trainer for Loretta Ross’ “Calling In: Creating Change Without Cancel Culture” online course based on the newly released book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. She is the founder of Visionary Allies LLC, which supports social justice leadership for nonprofits and individuals in the arts and activism. Luz co-founded SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and served as lead trainer at Foundation Center (now CANDID) for 13 years. She has taught at Alfred University, Brooklyn Campus, and Broward County Cultural Division’s “Business Skills for Creatives”. She mentors many in social justice and collective liberation work, with the hope of a kinder world for her five children and eight grandchildren.
Nydia Ocasio
Nydia Ocasio is one of New York's most experienced Latin/Afro-Caribbean performers. She is also a well-known choreographer, dance instructor, and Latin music educator. Her unique style seamlessly incorporates folkloric rhythm and dance movement techniques from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. As a master teacher/performer for the past 20+ years, she continues to share her vast knowledge and limitless passion for this art form with future generations. She has been a performer/choreographer and contributor with the following: Teatro Otra Cosa, Mi Bomba y Grupo, Afro Cuban/Puerto Rican dance Co./Patakin/Carambu (Boy’s Harbor), Roots of Brazil Dance Co., Orchestra Son De la Loma and Los Pleneros de la 21 among others. Nydia has created and directed two dance companies: Latin Sensations and Fiesta Brava Dance Revue. She has taught and performed extensively in various Salsa/Afro-Caribbean cultural events and conducted countless dance workshops throughout the tri-state area and abroad including at the 2002 L.A. Salsa Congress, 2nd Annual 2002 East Coast Salsa Congress where she was honored with the Mambo Hall of Fame Award, the 2006 East Coast Salsa Congress and the 2012 Collectors Festival both held at the New York Hilton Hotel, Yale University on the history of Latin music and the evolution of its dance along with another Latin dance legend, Ernest Ensley, Lincoln Center’s Annual Midsummer Night Swing, Boys Harbor Performing Art School, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora, and a School Residency PS40 in Brooklyn, NY among many others.
Manuela Arciniegas
Manuela Arciniegas is a cultural organizer, musician, and funder organizer and the executive director of the Communities for Just Schools Fund. She is the founder and director of the all-women’s Afro-Caribbean drum troupe, Legacy Women, and is pursuing a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in Ethnomusicology focusing on the power building and healing through Afro-Caribbean religious music. She is an awardee of the Soros Social Justice Fellowship, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the New York State Council of the Arts, the New York Humanities Fellowship, the Brooklyn and Bronx Arts Council, and the recipient of the 2022 Kennedy Center’s Next 50 Cultural Leadership Award. The former director of education at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Manuela has performed and served as a teaching artist in various universities like Wesleyan, Yale, Columbia, John Jay, and New York University, and has taught youth grades K-12 in public and private schools across New York City through City Lore, Caribbean Cultural Center, Dreamyard Arts Center, and various others. Manuela is also a priestess in Afro-Cuban Kongo Palo Mayombe, Lukumi, and Nigerian Isese tradition.
Elena Martínez
Elena Martínez is a distinguished Folklorist of Latin American and Latinx music and cultural history. She is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center and has been a Folklorist at City Lore since 1997. Martínez was co-producer of the award-winning documentary, From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale (2006) and a producer of We Like It Like That: The Story of Latin Boogaloo. She curated the exhibitions, “¡Que bonita bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag as Folk Art” (2003) and “Las Tres Hermanas: Art & Activism” (2017) and has contributed her scholarship to Latinas in the United States: An Historical Encyclopedia (2006); Women’s Folklore & Folklife: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art (2008); the New York State Folklife Reader: Diverse Voices (2013); The Dictionary of Caribbean & Afro-Latin Biography (2016) as well as scholarly journals. She is currently on the Advisory Boards for Casita Maria/Dancing in the Streets’ South Bronx Culture Trail, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Archive at Hunter College, and Los Pleneros de la 21. As a 2025 Folklorist in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute, she will document the oral history of Los Pleneros de la 21.
