Join us! Date: TBA
White Tropical Nights
Time: 7 PM – 9 PM Location: MOCA Courtyard
Opening Night of Copper Fest and Hispanic Heritage Month
Familiar Faces (Art Exhibition) – MOCA Pavilion
Music by: Locos Por Juana
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Family Fun Day
9 AM – 5 PM | MOCA Courtyard Programs;
9 AM | Yoga flow for Kids
10 AM | CeramiCommunity – Mask Making
11 AM | Yoga flow for Adults
1 PM | Family African Drum Activity
2 PM | Haitian Folk Dance
4 PM | Salsa Lessons
5 PM | Afro-Cuban Jewelry
6 PM – 9 PM | MOCA Plaza Concert;
6 PM | Erick Paredes
7 PM | Soul of Brass
8 PM | Agape featuring Nadia Harris
9 PM | Sintesis
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From exhilarating Caribbean music to groundbreaking contemporary dance to deep dives into community and spirituality. The second edition of Copper Fest, the celebration of Cuban culture from Miami’s Copperbridge Foundation, reaches out to the City of North Miami and opens up to embrace Haitian and Caribbean artists. Partnering with the City of North Miami, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the Little Haiti Cultural Center, the festival’s motto this year is “Come to NoMi!” The event, which takes place Sept. 7 to 12, includes performances by renowned Cuban dance theater troupe DanzAbierta and Afro-Cuban music group Sintesis, a show from Haitian photo project FotoKonbit, a family festival, community workshops and panels.
Copperbridge President and Founder Geo Darder launched the non-profit group in 2010 to foster cultural and educational exchange with Cuba, and has presented renowned contemporary dance company Malpaso, famed songwriter Descemer Bueno, co-author of global megahit Bailando, and the U.S. premiere of the groundbreaking theater piece Ten Million. Now the organization is building new cultural bridges, bringing Caribbean artists and community outreach to enrich the cultural life of North Miami, where Copperbridge has been based since its inception.
“North Miami, with its multi-cultural demographics, growing artistic scene, and vibrant mixed neighborhoods, is an ideal setting for Copper Fest,” says Darder. “We believe strongly that art should be accessible to all people and want to bring world class artists to our communities.”
Copper Fest opens on Sept. 7 with White Tropical Nights, which kicks off the City of North Miami’s and MOCA’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The event features Familiar Faces, an exhibit of Cuban visual artists and American photographer, Victoria Cohen, creator of the renowned photography book, Hotel Chelsea, in the MOCA Pavilion. The event also features a concert by Locos por Juana, the Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated reggae/cumbia/funk masters voted Best Latin Band in Miami New Times for 2017. Copper Fest returns to MOCA on Sept. 9 with Family Fun Day, an all-ages celebration that expands on the museum’s tradition of popular events in the plaza. Activities include African drum, Haitian dance, salsa dance, yoga, and mask-making workshops for kids and adults. The party continues into the evening with a concert of Afro-Caribbean fusion, with reggae-funk-electro band Agape featuring Nadia Harris, Soul of Brass, and pioneering Cuban group Sintesis, who blend the percolating rhythms and haunting melodies of Afro-Cuban spiritual music with modern rock and funk.
“We are very pleased to be a partner of Copper Fest in North Miami,” says MOCA Interim Director Natasha Colebrook-Williams. “White Tropical Nights and Family Fun
Day are wonderful ways to bring people of all ages together, to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of art.”
The Little Haiti Cultural Center will be the site for powerful projects from Haiti and Cuba on Sept. 8. The evening starts with a reception for FotoKonbit, a non-profit project dedicated to teaching photography to Haitian youth and adults, empowering them to represent their experience and culture. Two of the project’s Haitian students will attend, as will several of its mentors and founders, including famed photographer Maggie Steber, artist and community activist Tatiana Mora Liautaud, and documentary photographer Marie Arago. The reception will be followed by acclaimed Cuban dance theater troupe DanzAbierta, which combines vivid imagery and thrilling physicality to portray Cuban society, in the international premiere of Welcome, their newest work.
Reaching out to schools and the community is key to Copperbridge’s mission. Members of DanzAbierta will teach two days of master classes at Miami Dade College – Kendall Campus. From Sept. 7 to 12 Cuban ceramic artist and professor Pedro Pulido will teach workshops and create a permanent mural with students at WJ Bryan Elementary in North Miami. Pulido will also host an exhibit of work from his students at Havana’s San Alejandro School of the Arts at the North Miami Public Library. On Sept. 8, Barry University hosts a discussion on the “Art of Ceremony,” focusing on how spiritual rituals and symbols are transformed through artistic practice. Panelists include anthropologist and author of “Los Orishas en Cuba”, Natalia Bolivar, Cuban Babalawo (Yoruba priest) Yordany Gonzalez, and spiritual advisor and African-American Designer Donna Freeman.
Complete schedule, information and tickets for Copper Fest are at copperfest.com. Press contact Joelle Orr, joelle@copperbridge.org or (305) 891-8293 x111.