
ACCC Hosts Bomba Event.
8/1/22, 9:00 PM
ACCC Hosts Bomba Event.
by: John Murrary, Waterbury Observer
August 23, 2022
Over the past 20 weeks over 100 individuals (youth and adults) have been practicing Puerto Rican Bomba drumming and dancing to learn the history, traditions and rhythms of this art form.

ACCC Hosts Bomba Event.
by: John Murrary, Waterbury Observer
August 23, 2022
Over the past 20 weeks over 100 individuals (youth and adults) have been practicing Puerto Rican Bomba drumming and dancing to learn the history, traditions and rhythms of this art form.
What they learned will be on full display Sunday, August 28th, from 11 am to 3 pm at the New Opportunities Inc parking lot (corner of North Grove and North Main Street).
The event will feature over 50 Art/Non Profit vendors /DJ/ Food Trucks and four different Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena musical acts. There will be free back to school supplies for kids and a family scavenger hunt activity that will feature a prize a the end.
Artist Rafael Feliciano Roman and the Afro Caribbean Cultural Center of Waterbury are jointly presenting the Inaugural Bombazo and Barrio Arts Fest. This outdoor one-day festival celebrates the Afro-Puertorican style of Bomba drumming and dancing.
What is Bomba? Puerto Rican Bomba is the first native music of Puerto Rico, created in the sugar plantations by slaves more than 400 years ago.
Roman, was born and raised in Waterbury, he moved away after high school for 15 years and came back a year and a half ago. Roman realized the need for arts/cultural production that was reflective of Waterbury's rich Afro-Caribbean community. He applied as an individual artist and received the State of Connecticut Office of the Arts - Artists Respond Grant which made the weekly workshops / classes possible. This was done in collaboration with Heart and Sole Dance Studio and Brendaliz Cepeda and Saul Penaloza of Springfield, Mass. The Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Roman also founded the Afro Caribbean Cultural Center during this same time and as a result the Cultural Center is the co-presenting sponsor of this Bombazo and Arts Festival serving as a graduation and community celebration officially ending summer.