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SQFC Press Statement May 2024 NEWS For Immediate ReleaseJune 3, 2024 For More Information:Nanette Hernández201.463.4814sqfcjc@gmail.com SEGUNDA QUIMBAMBA FOLKLORIC CENTER RECEIVES $25,000 GRANT FROM NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS TO PROMOTE ITS ARCHIVES ON PUERTO RICAN DRUM MUSIC Jersey City, NJ – Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000. This grant will support Archival Work for the arts organization, which has celebrated and preserved Puerto Rican folkloric music Bomba and Plena in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and beyond for more than 30 years. Segunda Quimbamba is one of 1,135 recipients of the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million.   “Projects like Documenting Folklore exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design, and the National Endowment for the Arts is committed to ensuring people across the country benefit.”   “Afro-Puerto Rican dance and drum practices are an integral part of Puerto Rico’s rich folklore. They are also a cultural marker within the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. Segunda Quimbamba appreciates the support from the National Endowment for the Arts to help us incorporate our archives in our performance and teaching spaces,” notes Juan Cartagena, Executive Director of the Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center.   To dance Puerto Rican Bomba is to drum. This is why 30 years of archival materials housed at the Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center are vital to understand dance traditions within the Puerto Rican diaspora. This grant from National Endowment for the Arts allows SQFC to complete the documentation and inventory of our archives, to secure their preservation through digitization, to support new publications of the role of Afro-Puerto Rican dance and drum forms, and to devise new ways of accessing our materials publicly.   For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news. Segunda Quimbamba Folkloric Center is a cultural and educational organization dedicated to the preservation, practice and celebration of Puerto Rico’s music, especially its Bomba and Plena traditions. Established in 1997. It houses Segunda Quimbamba, New Jersey’s premier Bomba and Plena drum and dance ensemble.