Welcome and Season Opening Celebration

Esperanza Arts Center

presents

SEASON OPENING CELEBRATION

Esperanza Community Welcome & Appreciation Night

Screening & Bombazo

featuring La Lengua del Tambor

TEATRO ESPERANZA | GALERIA ESPERANZA | ESPERANZA COURTYARD 

General Admission: FREE (Invitation-Only)

 3:00PM – 6:00PM, Friday, September 11, 2026

EAC opens our 2026/2027 season and previews our VOCES Series spotlighting dance traditions across Latin America and the Caribbean with an evening of music, dance, food, conversation, and community – featuring multidisciplinary artist collective, La Lengua del Tambor.

La Lengua del Tambor traces the ancestral rhythm of Bomba - Puerto Rico’s oldest surviving African-derived music and dance tradition. From the shores of Loiza to the streets of North Philadelphia, film maker Ant Rivera, painter Samuel Lind, cultural worker Iris Brown, and artist Lucas Rivera reveal how Bomba is more than performance - it is the heartbeat of survival, identity, and Black memory - a story of migration and resilience, showing how the rhythm of the drum carried across the Atlantic slave trade continues to unify communities, resist erasure, and speak truth across generations.

Part of VOCES. EAC’s VOCES Series spotlights a different facet of Latin American culture and traditions each season. This year’s VOCES Series, ¡BAILE!, will feature dance traditions from Latin America, the Latin Caribbean, and the Latin Diaspora.