LIVE | The Sound of GarífunaAmérica: Aurelio Martínez in Conversation with Natalia Algarín | 02/18 @ 6pm

The Sound of GarífunaAmérica: Aurelio Martínez in Conversation with Natalia Algarín Friday, February 18, at 6 PM - 8 PM EST NYU's Hemispheric Institute in collaboration with The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University present a special evening of music and storytelling. This event will be  in Spanish. An English-language version will be made available at a later date.         About   Garífuna singer-songwriter, guitarist, and percussionist Aurelio Martínez is one of Central America's most gifted composers and performers.  Born in Honduras, the artist is known for his powerful and evocative voice and for compositions that bring a modern expression to Garífuna music. He is a major tradition-bearer of Garífuna diasporic culture, a former Honduran congressman, and a global ambassador for the Garífuna nation. His albums have been named to multiple year-end critics lists, including The Sunday Times and The Guardian. Roots named Martínez as "the finest living exponent of the music of the Garífuna people" and The London Evening Standard called him "one of the great artists of Latin America." Martínez joins NYU's Hemispheric Institute as artist in residence during the 2022 calendar year, as part of the Mellon Foundation's World Making and Social Emergency Initiative.  As a kick-off event for a new partnership between the Hemispheric Institute and the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Martínez will perform and engage in discussion with curator and festival producer Natalia Algarín. They will discuss Garífuna cultural history, Martínez's personal history and formation as a musician, his priorities as a composer and performer, the connection between Garífuna music and Latin and World music, and how Martínez's work builds the future of music from GarífunAmérica. This event is co-sponsored by NYU's Institute of African American Affairs and the Center for Black Visual Culture.   Bios Aurelio Martínez Aurelio Martínez is a renowned singer/songwriter, guitarist and percussionist, and one of the great musical artists of Central America. He is a master composer and global ambassador of Garífuna music and cultural patrimony. Born in La Ceiba, Honduras to a family with a formidable musical legacy, Martínez is known for his potent and evocative voice and original compositions, which are a modern expression of Garífuna tradition. He is an international musical force who has received numerous prizes and performed across the world sharing and teaching Garífuna culture. In addition to his career as a performing and recording artist, Martínez became the first Garífuna and the first Black representative in the Honduran Congress, where he advocated for the rights and cultural sovereignty of his community. During his residency, which will Inaugurate the collaboration between Hemi and NYU's Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, Aurelio will give master classes, community workshops and participate in other public programs. Natalia Algarín Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Natalia Algarín is an independent project curator based in Atlanta. She has over 11 years of experience managing and creating events and programs for journalism and cultural organizations in the U.S. and Latin America. She specializes in creating engaging initiatives for multicultural audiences and backgrounds. Currently, she holds the following curatorial and organizational roles: project curator of the Latino Media Summit, a journalistic gathering focused on Latino media and audiences in the United States, organized by The Newmark J-School, at CUNY; and general coordinator of the Central American Journalism Forum -ForoCAP-, organized by the Salvadoran newspaper, El Faro. She is also part of a production partnership for Liniers & Montt, Stand Up Ilustrado, a live performance with the renowned illustrators Alberto Montt (Chile) and Ricardo Siri Liniers (Argentina). Previously, as a consultant, she helped create La Red Sessions for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, NAHJ Conference 2021. For seven years, she was a special projects director for Fundación Gabo, founded by the Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, and curator of its Gabo Festival and Awards. Before that, she worked for the two main events in culture and arts in her hometown, Carnaval Internacional de las Artes and Barranquijazz Festival.       About Us The Hemispheric Institute gathers artists, scholars, writers, learners, and activists from across the Americas. We focus on social justice and research politically engaged culture and performance. About HemiTV HemiTV is the Hemispheric Institute's portal for live streaming and virtual programming, developed for the Zoom era and beyond.         Hemispheric Institute at New York University 20 Cooper Square Fifth Floor New York, NY 10003, USA