¡Azúcar!: Celebrating 100 Years of Celia Cruz’s Legacy and Rhythm

The Department of African, Black and Caribbean Studies and the Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force present, ¡Azúcar!: Celebrating 100 Years of Celia Cruz’s Legacy and Rhythm.

Guest speaker and Ethnomusicologist Jay Loomis will discuss Celia Cruz’s extensive career and highlight the pan-Hispanic genre of music, salsa, which Celia Cruz was instrumental in creating, shaping and popularizing.

Recognized as much for her activism as for her music, the Cuban-born singer became one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Her extraordinary career broke cultural barriers and was instrumental in widening the reach of Latin American and Caribbean music globally, honoring its African roots.

Attendees are sure to be treated to an immersive experience that heralds the artistry and legacy of a Latin music icon, ambassador of Cuban music and symbol of joy to millions of people around the globe.

Speaker Bio

Jay Loomis

Jay Loomis is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Brown University whose research examines Afro diasporic son jarocho music, instrument-making, and community life in southern Veracruz, Mexico. His dissertation, Son Jarocho Communities and Fandango Culture: Black Atlantic Country Music in Southern Veracruz, explores how Afro-Mexican and Indigenous traditions of sound, craft, and pedagogy sustain resilience amid ecological and social change. As a musician, maker, and scholar, Loomis integrates performance, 3D documentation, and collaborative fieldwork to study instruments as archives of memory, ecology, and identity across the Afro-Latin world.

This event is free and open to the public.

Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, please contact the Department of African, Black and Caribbean Studies at 516.877.4980.

Sponsored by the Hispanic Serving Institution Task Force and the Department for African, Black and Caribbean Studies.