Interview with AFROCUBA’s DJ Asho

On the first anniversary of AFROCUBA, DJ Asho sat down with Afrofusion to talk about how he developed the idea for the event, and how far it has come since the first edition. On Thursday February 10 at Sutra Lounge in Washington, DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, the event kicked off with a screening of the classic documentary Cuando Los Espiritus Bailan Mambo (When the Spirits Dance Mambo), by Marta Morena Vega. The night also included a live (and lively), very

1st year Anniversary Celebration of AFROCUBA!

Ariel Fernández, alias DJ Asho

For Ariel Fernández Díaz, the promulgation of the Afro-Cuban aesthetic is not simply a glamorous enterprise. “It’s naive to me to analyze the present without reviewing the past,” he says in a recent interview. In throwing his monthly parties at Sutra Lounge in Washington, DC his goal is to celebrate the culture of Afro-Cubans “through music, documentary films, and personal interactions.” On Thursday February 10 DJ Asho, as Ariel is known, will host a special edition of AFROCUBA! to celebrate its 1st year anniversary in DC. It’s an integral part of his effort to make sure that the contributions of people of color and the oppressed in the history and culture of Cuba do not get dismissed or ignored. As such, Thursday’s edition

AFROCUBA! Yo Soy, del Son a la Salsa: Special Film Screening!

Question: What exactly is “Salsa?” If you do not know, think you know, or know you know, you’ll still be in for a surprise if you haven’t yet seen the documentary movie Yo Soy, del Son a la Salsa (1997). You can watch it for FREE(!) Thursday night at Sutra Lounge in Adams Morgan, Washington, DC, at a special DC edition of AFROCUBA! According to several reviews, it is the most thorough historical treatment given on film to the dance music we now call Salsa. Many practitioners continue to disagree over what exactly it is – Celia Cruz, the great Afro-Cuban singer 

Chico & Rita: Love, Romance and Afro Cuban Jazz (Trailer)

Chico & Rita Poster

After running into the trailer for this animated feature film on thenublak, I can understand why film enthusiasts in the UK are so excited about Chico & Rita opening there on November the 19th. I know that it has already been screened in North American film festivals like Toronto and Telluride, but here’s what I really want to know: when can we see it in the cinemas stateside?? Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque, 1992) and Graphic Artist Javier Mariscal directed this love story that begins in Havana, Cuba and trumpets through New York and Las Vegas to the Afro-Cuban Jazz sounds of Bebo Valdés. It tells the story of Chico, a piano player, and Rita, a singer who unite in music, passion and romance, but their relationship gets stagnated by cruel circumstance and heartache.