White Center Now: The blog about White Center

This is going to be an amazing show. Thee Emergency are bringing some special guests that can not be named. It is going to be a fun, but packed show, so get here early. You are going to be kicking yourself Sunday morning if you miss this one.

Son de los Diablos

Weather should be summery and perfect for the Afro-Peruvian Dance Troupe on Friday (May 29th) at 6 pm.

May 29th, (Friday) 6pm
Devil’s Dance Parade in White Center followed by concert at Café Rozella
7pm   9434 Delridge Way SW
Seattle, WA 98106 (206) 763-5805

AFrican ConeXion Project, Café Rozella and 4Culture Specific Site.

Son de los Diablos Parade

The Parade Route for the Devil’s Dance has been announced: The Parade starts at El Paisano, on the corner of 15^th Ave. SW and Roxbury, proceeds to La Fondita at SW 98^th St., and then to Full Tilt Ice Cream at 9629 16th Avenue SW then to the Triangle at Roxbury/16th Ave. SW/Delridge and then from there to Cafe Rozella for a Muscial Performance. (Choreography by Monica Rojas, Ph.D.)

Diablo Dancing to Afro-Peruvian Rythms.

Afro-Peruvian Dance and Music:  El Son De Los Diablos
NPR States, “Afro-Peruvian music has complex, sensual rhythms. Its instrumentation is spare, originally just nylon-string guitar, bass and a wooden box called cajon. When it started getting outside attention in the mid-’90s, it felt new. The music’s lean architecture and introspective mood differentiated it from the likes of salsa and merengue.”
“The people of the so-called Black Pacific were so far removed from their African origins that the creators of Afro-Peruvian music couldn’t rely much on cultural memory. So they created instruments, rhythms and a compelling musical aesthetic that was largely a product of their imaginations. The pride of Afro-Peruvian music is the lando, an elegant dance with intertwined rhythms and a seductive undertow.”
El Son De Los Diablos will feature the musicians behind Grammy Award Winner Susana Baca.  Truly a unique experience of a hot new trend in Latin American Music.
Admission is FREE

Diablos do choreagraphed dance movements

AFRO PERUVIAN PERCUSSION; The Cajon

African slaves were brought over to the Spanish colony of Peru in the 16th century to work mainly in the gold and silver mines of the high Andes. However their physique was not suited to the high altitude and they died by the hundreds. Their Spanish or Creole (descendants of European settlers in Latin America) masters sent them to work in the milder climate of the desert coast, where they laboured in the large haciendas; private farms. It was in their small huts, on the packed dirt floors of the courtyards overrun with animals and in the fields of cane and sugar cane that Afro-Peruvian music, song and dance were born.

The beginnings of slavery in Peru were different from the rest of the Americas. Although in Brazil or Central and North American countries it was common to import large groups of slaves from the same African tribe, only small and geographically dispersed ethnic groups were brought to Peru. This was meant to discourage rebel movements around the tribal chiefs, and as such, made almost impossible the preservation of communal traditions. Without a common language or tribal authority to remind them of their roots, Peruvian slaves were progressively integrated into the culture and language of their new country. As a result Afro-Peruvian music is a unique blend of Spanish, Andean and African traditions.

Centuries old, this music started to gain recognition in Peru about 40 years ago and it has became popular in the last 25 years. It was born in the coastal barrios (suburbs) and towns and was reconstructed and resurrected thanks to the work of a few artists and historians. Because the Africans were forbidden from playing their own instruments, percussion instruments developed out of the simplest household appliances; spoons, kitchen chairs, table tops, boxes, handclaps, until it reached this century with the creation of the cajon as a specific instrument to play music.

The cajon which is a wooden-box in which the player sits on to play, is thought to have originated in Peru.  The cajon is made out of hardwood with the front cover being of a very fine layer of plywood. The cajon has an open circle cut at the back of the instrument. The player sits and plays two main strokes as well as a few other variations. The main two consist of: the tone of the box which is played with the full palm in the middle of the “head” (this stroke is usually a bass or palm sound on a variety of African derived hand drums found around the world) and the slap which is played on the edge of the “head” of the instrument (this sound also part of the technique used in many hand drums around the world).

Cotito - El cajon

(A big thank you to Latino Cultural Magazine for the photographs.)

May 23rd, (Saturday), 7:30pm,  Afro-Peruvian percussionist Juan Medrano Cotito releases his new CD “La Voz Del Cajon” at  Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.
$20 including CD.

These events are sponsored by AFrican ConeXion Project, 4Culture and Cafe Rozella.

Check out the new logo at jubileedays.org – and they’ve even started a Twitter account.

Two more upcoming events to share with you!

Once again, it is time for the White Center for the Arts Open Studio Tour
This coming Saturday, May 16th, 2009 5 PM until 10 PM

Please join us as we present eight artists’ new work.
A wine and cheese event.

White Center for the Arts Building
9639 16th Ave SW
White Center, WA

206-306-6230 for additional information

www.whitecenterforthearts.org

And looking further down the road —

Evergreen High School’s Class of 79
30 year reunion
Saturday, August 8th, 7 pm
Rainier Golf and Country Club
$60 per person

RSVP by July 1st.
email: evergreenclassof79@yahoo.com for details.

If you haven’t already heard, we wanted to put in one more plug – partner site West Seattle Blog sponsors West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day the second Saturday of May, and TOMORROW is the big day, 9 am-3 pm, 180+ sales registered from all over West Seattle, including some close to White Center. You can download the map from this page, where you can also follow the link to a clickable online version.

White Center’s neighboring neighborhood to the north, Highland Park, is offering more chances to dance – here’s the scoop:

Come join our fun-loving, warm-hearted social dance community in Highland Park, West Seattle. We offer swing and waltz classes and will be starting a new 6-week class session on Tuesdays. This time we offer the following:

6 Tuesdays: May 12th – June 16th

6:30 – 7:30 — Beginning East Coast Swing: A great place to begin. Fun and easy, and no experience or partner required! As with all our beginning classes, when you finish you will have moves and confidence to go out dancing!

7:30 – 8:30 — Waltz 2 (Romantic Waltz): Taking beginning slow waltz and turning waltz and adding moves and confidence. Prerequisite: Waltz 1 or instructor permission.

8:30 – 9:30 — East Coast Swing 2 (Footwork, Styling & Charleston): More cool moves and fancy footwork (don’t worry, we’ll take it one step at a time!) and even some Charleston. A rollicking good time! Prerequisite: Swing 1 or instructor permission.

For all the information–including information on class discounts for new students–go to http://www.danceforjoy.biz/classes.html
or call 206-264-5646 or e-mail lilli@att.net to contact the instructor, Lilli Ann.

Trio Lucero Del Norte

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Cafe Rozella

Cafe Rozella will host a very special Cinco de Mayo celebration with the music of Trio Lucero del Norte, specializing in Son Huasteca.  The celebration begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5th.  Come listen to some authentic Mexican music tinged with an indigenous feel.

Huasteca Region

The region is composed of six Mexican states: Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Veracruz.

The land known as la Huasteca derives its name from the people that inhabited the area at the time of the conquest, the Huaxtecos. La Huasteca is a multi state region focused at the mouth of the Pánuco River. The region is bounded to the north by the river Soto la Marina in Tamaulipas, to the south by the Cazones River in Veracruz, to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and to the west by the Sierra Madre Oriental crossing through the states of Hidalgo, Puebla and Querétaro in the west.

The distinctive feature of the huasteca region is the music, a style known as huapango or son Huasteco. The terms son huasteco and huapango can be used interchangeably to denote the music of the region, though huapango is the term most popularly used in Mexico.

The huapango is a style of music that is distinguished by the presence of the Trío Huasteco, and the use of the falsetto voice in singing. The Trío Huasteco is made up of three instruments (thus the term trio) – the European derived violin and two guitar variants of local origin – the large guitarra quinta or huapanguera and smaller jarana huasteca.

May 29th, (Friday) 6pm

Devil’s Dance Parade in White Center

followed by concert at Café Rozella

7pm

9434 Delridge Way SW

Seattle, WA 98106 (206) 763-5805

Cafe Rozella brings the hottest trend in Latin Music to White Center

Afro-Peruvian Dance and Music:  El Son De Los Diablos

NPR States:   “Afro-Peruvian music has complex, sensual rhythms. Its instrumentation is spare, originally just nylon-string guitar, bass and a wooden box called cajon. When it started getting outside attention in the mid-’90s, it felt new. The music’s lean architecture and introspective mood differentiated it from the likes of salsa and merengue.”

“Enslaved Africans had to make two long passages to reach Peru, first across the Atlantic, and then over the landmass of South America. The people of the so-called Black Pacific were so far removed from their African origins that the creators of Afro-Peruvian music couldn’t rely much on cultural memory. So they created instruments, rhythms and a compelling musical aesthetic that was largely a product of their imaginations. The pride of Afro-Peruvian music is the lando, an elegant dance with intertwined rhythms and a seductive undertow.”

El Son De Los Diablos will feature the musicians behind Grammy Award Winner Susana Baca.  Truly a unique experience of a hot new trend in Latin American Music.

From the Rat City Rollergirls‘ “Deadly Aim,” who we profiled recently at partner site West Seattle Blog (see the story here):

Just wanted to give you a heads up … RCRG will be in White Center Saturday from 11-2 for some street cleaning. The 2 mile stretch of SW 16th was adopted 5 years ago, and twice a year ever since we’ve headed down to give it some sprucing and have some fun.

After the cleanup, she adds, there’s an afterparty at Big Al’s.

This info was left as a comment on an old story about trying to keep Evergreen Pool open – so we wanted to republish it here:

April Pool’s Day
Saturday, April 25th from noon to 2:30 pm

This free, annual, family-friendly event promotes water safety & includes fun activities, demonstrations, & even canoe rides in the pool.

Stop by to find out more about saving this great asset of our community from the County’s Chopping Block.

It’s become a monthly tradition – and tonight’s your chance to check it out again: The White Center for the Arts open studio tour, 5-10 pm.

Got this note from a Seattle-based TV production company and thought we’d share (if we weren’t in media, we’d apply ourselves, as absolute experts on house-messiness):

Seattle’s Screaming Flea Productions is shooting an upcoming TV pilot in Seattle:

Do you have clothes from your laundry room, toys from your kids’ rooms, and odds and ends stored in your garage starting to spill out and invade your living spaces? Does your home need some major design updating?

We’re looking for couples to appear on a new design makeover show for a major cable network. This show focuses on couples whose homes are messy, cluttered and disorganized. Our team (an organizer, designer, and carpenter) will organize and redesign rooms in your home at no cost to the homeowner. You just have to be able to let go of the clutter and have a real desire to get organized!

We start shooting very soon.

Please send your story along with pictures of your mess and yourselves to:
makeovertvshow@gmail.com

Since we were at the Gathering of Neighbors at Chief Sealth High School all day (coverage on partner site West Seattle Blog), we only made it down to the festival in the final hour, but that was in time to catch some shots of music and dance – with the crowd having a great time right on into the final moments just before 5 pm:

Just a reminder that we’re now in the season where so many great events overlap, you wish you could be in two (or more) places at any one time.

ADDED SUNDAY: Thanks to Tim LaPlante for sharing more photos!

Though the event is in West Seattle, White Center’s part of it too. DNDA is presenting the Gathering of Neighbors/Biz Expo tomorrow (Saturday 4/4) with the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and tonight we have the full participant list: To see who’ll be there, click here – on behalf of White Center Now and partner site West Seattle Blog, we’ll be there along with more than 70 other local businesses and organizations, including, from White Center, WestSide Baby and the White Center Community Development Association, as well as the White Center-based YWCA Employment and Training Program. Come by and say hi, 11 am-3 pm tomorrow, Chief Sealth HS at Boren (5950 Delridge; here’s a map); one other note — if you’re in West Seattle and you’re thinking about joining in this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (May 9), sign up at our table tomorrow — the first day of registration — and get a one-day-only discount on the signup fees (which pay for mapmaking, posters, other fun stuff that gets WSCGSD on the regional radar). See you tomorrow!

Thanks to Ron Angeles, Delridge Neighborhood Services Center coordinator for the city of Seattle, for circulating that flyer so we could share it with you here!

(photo added Saturday afternoon)
Noon-6 pm, old skating rink. More info here; our coverage of #1, with pix, is here.

Lots of great art in the studio rooms upstairs from the 16th SW entry to the old skating rink .. but this was our favorite … with an invitation to do your own creating.

March 28th is now set as the second round of Rat City Rummage in White Center’s old skating rink. First one last weekend was a blast – as we showed you here (and as you can tell from Dina Johnson‘s photos on the Highland Park Action Committee site). RCR’s website says vendor spots are still open, so you can e-mail at ratcityrummage@hotmail.com.