THE WORK

Ten years later, Pa’lo Monte has developed into one of the premiere Afro-Dominican and Haitian traditional groups in New York City, highlighting a model for collaboration between artist and social justice communities, and demonstrating the importance of these cultural workers in the liberation of their people. Over the last ten years, Pa’lo Monte has responded to the communities’ cries for support in organizing around issues such as justice for immigrants, an end to violence against women, the movement for peace, and the call for unity between Dominicans and Haitians. The political-mystical messages of Pa’lo Monte’s songs have often provided a force that moves people to action, both literally and figuratively, providing spiritual uplift for troubled times and motivation to join the struggle for a better world.

TRANSFORMATION

Over the past ten years, Pa’lo Monte has transformed from a musical ensemble into an Institution for the teaching and preservation of African and Indigenous cultural traditions from the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It has provided lectures and skill-building workshops in diverse venues from elementary schools to the United Nations. Pa’lo Monte’s founded the Afro-Caribbean Festival in Honor of Liborio Mateo (2003 – 2007), which celebrates the life and teachings of one of the cimarrones, or leaders of African and Indigenous resistance in the Dominican Republic, providing an innovative means of educating the communities about the legacy of struggle that they have inherited, and reframing modern struggles within this context. New work by Pa’lo Monte combines traditional and popular elements of Dominican and Caribbean music that will yield a more dispersed understanding of the political and spiritual significance of these traditions.

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