Concerts & Events

RSVP is NOT required for this free event, but is requested. Space may be limited, and your RSVP does not guarantee entry - so please arrive early. This event is presented as part of World Music Festival Chicago, your email and other information may be shared with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for marketing and audience development purposes

Nidia Góngora

The “maestra Nidia Góngora” as she is known, is the most recognized singer of the Colombian Pacific, winner of the Shock Award and nominated for the Latin Grammy for best folk album in 2019 with Canalón de Timbiquí. Nidia has a degree in preschool education and is a connoisseur and researcher of the traditional music of the South Pacific. Throughout her more than 22 years of experience as a composer and performer, maestro Nidia has managed to build bridges between the traditional music of her native Timbiquí (Cauca) and other genres of world music, being the main artist in the Quantic project, with whom she has two successful works Curao (2017) and Almas Conectadas (2021-22).

Nidia Góngora is the maximum exponent of traditional Pacific music and has been a main and featured artist in other groups with which she collaborates such as La Pacifican Power, Ondatrópica, Pacífico Sinfónico, Bahía, AleKuma, Herencia de Timbiquí, De Palenque a Matongue and Dizzy Mandjeku, The Bongo Hop, Búho, Montoya, Malecón, Orishas and more.

https://www.instagram.com/nidiagongoramusic

Bomberxs D'Cora

La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón, founded in November 2009 by Ivelisse “Bombera de Corazón” Díaz, is an Afro-Puerto Rican diasporic performing arts school rooted in the tradition of Bomba. La Escuelita offers a comprehensive curriculum of basic, intermediate, and advanced courses, all grounded in Bomba's rhythmic structure and cultural context.

Located in the historic Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park in Chicago, and extending its reach globally through virtual programming, La Escuelita serves as a vital educational and cultural hub. Students are offered access to master bomberxs, historians, composers, families, instrument artisans, and cultural leaders. Centering intergenerational learning and prioritize accessibility, cultural continuity, and community in practice.

Led by a collective of experienced practitioners, La Escuelita cultivates discipline, creativity, and community leadership while deepening connections between Chicago and Puerto Rico. La Escuelita's mission is not only to teach Bomba but to honor and uplift the communities and elders who have sustained it. With a pedagogy rooted in Black and Brown liberation, cultural resilience, and social justice, La Escuelita transforms in-person and virtual classrooms into bateyes of embodied learning, healing, and collective memory.

https://www.bomberadecorazon.com/bomberxsdcora