Raíces Caribeñas
Main Stage- 10:30 am – 11:45 am Workshop Stage- 1:15 pm – 1:45 pm
Raíces Caribeñas is comprised of an intergenerational mix of professional singers, dancers, drummers, and musicians. The group performs the folkloric traditions of the Caribbean, as well as fusions of these traditions with modern genres. The group also aims to educate its audiences through historical explanations, school performances, workshops, multimedia presentations, and technology.
Guelageutza / Lazos America Unida
Main Stage- 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm Workshop Stage- 11:00 am – 11:30 am
Lazos America Unida is a Latino arts and cultural organization in New Brunswick. Lazos presents dances from Guelguetza, a festival that features presentations from the different regions and cultural groups of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The dances featured are preserved by local Oaxacan cultural groups in New Jersey and are performed annually at the Guelaguetza in New Brunswick and at other similar events throughout the Northeast.
Lazos- Filogonio Naxín
Filogonio is a Visual artist; painting, drawing, and engraving workshop facilitator; book illustrator; indigenous culture promoter; and Mazateco language speaker.
Lazos- Las Chinas Oaxaqueñas
Las calendas are joyful parades that take place in the traditional Oaxacan festivities. They are preceded by the Oaxacan chinas, who parade through the streets of the city’s neighborhoods dancing to the rhythm of the jarabe de Valle and wearing colorful costumes of bright colors, carrying baskets full of flowers as offerings, representing the women who sell art, food, vegetables, and fruits in the markets.
Lazos- Kawoq Folk Dance Group
KAWOQ is a Mayan word that symbolizes the destiny of people and the continuity with the past. It is the thread of time and development of humanity and nature. It represents the different stages of life in the Mayan calendar. The Kawoq dance group is formed by families from western Guatemala and is directed by Estela Say to help preserve and promote the culture of Guatemala in the USA.
Lazos- María Vivar
Maria possesses a profound talent for fashion and sewing, a skill she pursued academically and utilized creatively to support her daughter’s dance endeavors, crafting exquisite skirts and costumes. Her creativity continues to evolve as she explores new crafts, from paper mache marigolds to intricate 3D altar models, enriching her workshops at Rutgers and beyond.
Lazos- Maestro Aníbal Alcántara Becerril
Maestro Aníbal Alcántara Becerril is a cultural luminary with a rich and diverse background in the arts, education, and indigenous traditions. He has given educational workshops, guided tours of archaeological sites, theatrical performances, and a major event of pre-Hispanic dance, music, and ball games, conducted natural medicine ceremonies, and shared his passion for preserving and celebrating Mexican indigenous traditions with younger generations.
LAKI BALI
Main Stage- 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
From the heart of NYC, Laki Bali delivers an esoteric blend of exotically ancient yet invigoratingly modern music. A swirling romp of sound that is equal parts foot stomping and face puckering. Come with no expectations other than to have some wild fun and dance in ways you never have before.
Kuf Knotz & Christine Elise
Main Stage- 2:30 pm – 3:15 pm
Named Philadelphia Magazine Best Rapper of 2022 and 1 of 10 New Jersey Artists, Küf Knotz (Producer/MC) and Christine Elise (Harpist/Vocalist) connected with a similar mission to create positive, forward-thinking music fusing the boom-bap era and lo-fi inspired beats supported by the harp. And, you can dance to it! Exemplifying their diverse reach, the duo has opened for Wyclef Jean, Yellowman, and Rising Appalachia, and has been featured on NPR Music and WHYY.
RU Bhangra
Main Stage- 3:30 pm – 3:45 pm Workshop Stage– 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm
As the first collegiate team, RU Bhangra specializes in this lively and traditional folk dance from Punjab, India. It is celebrated for its infectious energy, colorful attire, and rhythmic beats that symbolize the vitality of the region’s culture and agricultural history.
Jeff Quattrone- Tomato Talk
Workshop Stage– 10:15 am – 10:45 am
Jeff Quattrone is a New Jersey seed foodway and folklife historian who uses his experience as a seed activist and artist to respect, revive, and reinvent the history and intersection of Jersey tomato culture as an American folklife and foodway.
Jersey Apple Gathering- Riamede Farm & Michael Clifford
Workshop Stage- 11:45 am – 12:15 pm
Riamede is an old-fashioned apple farm in Chester, NJ
Michael Clifford is a Morris County-based apple explorer dedicated to preserving New Jersey’s forgotten apple cultivars.
Denise Dietrich- Beekeeper
Workshop Stage– 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm
American Food Class Presentations
Workshop Stage– 2:45 pm – 3:15 pm
Share Your Foodways
Workshop Stage: 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm
The Arts Institute of Middlesex County has partnered with local chefs to explore how food, culture, and family histories intersect. Check out this page for DIY tutorials, interviews with our featured chefs, printable recipes, and a window into the rich variety of food traditions in our County!
The Space Waraku- Itoko Kobayashi
Culture Tent
Itoko Kobayashi (ABD), is a Japanese national with degrees from Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan) and Drew University (Madison, NJ). She is currently a graduate student of SUNY Buffalo State University online. She practices 3D origami, which has the assembling style, by folding multiple small rectangle papers and forms into one work. She both follows traditional designs and creates her own charming small works. She instructs both 3D origami and regular origami at schools, libraries, art associations, and senior centers.
The Great Full Garden
Culture Tent
The Great Full Garden started as a mission of food justice and expanded into an example of how small-scale regenerative agriculture can be a driver for community building and economic resilience. While working to educate folks on everything from DIY-planet-friendly cleaners, to designing your own backyard farm – owner Jamie Warner also grows and produces a line of botanical and herbal teas, tinctures, salves, syrups, as well as sustainably grown native and medicinal nursery plants.
MayGardenBlooms
Culture Tent
I am an artist and crafter from Berkeley Heights, NJ. I have always worked with paper and other natural materials including silk, that are compostable. My current focus is on hand-made eco-friendly ‘forever bloom’ paper flowers. Unlike many other artificial plastic or artificial ‘silk’ flowers available elsewhere, mine are made from natural materials, paper-based, and nonplastic, including the real branch/stem sourced locally. You can see some of my creations at my site link and also at my Etsy shop: etsy
Workshops with May Garden Blooms at their booth in the Culture tent will occur at 10:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm, 2:30pm