World-Class Latin Culture & Global Roots
Gabriela Montero “Iberia” Shows the Spanish Influence on Piano Repertoire
Montero is famous for improvising live on themes provided by her audience.
Don’t miss her Albéniz, Granados, De Larrocha, and more at 92NY. More…
New York Latin Culture Brings the World Together
Bryant Park Dance Party is Free Dancing Outdoors to Live Music with a Lesson
Salsa, R&B, Samba/Bossa Nova/Forró, Swing, Bachata, Salsa Cubana
Free Shakespeare in the Park Romeo & Juliet Has Lovers Speaking Spanish
An iconic love story with a message for us all
New York African Film Festival is "As the Stars Sow the Earth"
“Promised Sky,” “The Eyes of Ghana, “Dust to Dreams”
El Museo del Barrio Hosts Frieze Conference on the Latino Artrising
Museums, curators, and collectors discuss the rise of the Latino Art Market
New York Mets vs New York Yankees Subway Series
New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins
Haitian Culture Day Parade & Festival
Tabou Combo, Anie Alerte with Band Zile, Colmix, AndyBeatz, Steves J. Bryan
Mother's Day is a Celebration of Peace
SECOND SUNDAY IN MAY 🇧🇷🇨🇦🇨🇱🇨🇴🇨🇺🇪🇨🇭🇳🇮🇹🇵🇪🇵🇷🇺🇸🇺🇾🇻🇪
Global Roots
Latin culture and American culture are far more African than most of us have been taught. We are Asian too.
European NYC
West African NYC
Central African NYC
East African NYC
Southern African NYC
Asian NYC
Iroko “Kíko” Keith Widyolar
Founder, Editor, Cacique, Mayimbe, Oba, Bobo, Whateveryouare
¿KLK? I’m an American, a 20-year New Yorker who lives and works in the Latin world.
I build brands and businesses, but my life’s purpose is to bring people together through culture. Maferefún Eleguá.
I’ve been looking for the roots of Latin culture since 2006. They reach around the world, but the literal root has been right in front of me the entire time. It’s the yuca.
Raw yuca root is poisonous. Indigenous Amazonians developed the technology to make it safe to eat.
Taíno brought it to the Caribbean because it’s nutritious and didn’t spoil on long sea voyages.
On the islands, Taíno developed advanced farming techniques and mass-produced casabe flatbread. Yuca was so important, they named the great father Yúcahu.
In the Caribbean, we still eat boiled yuca with garlic and oil, bitter orange, and sauteed onions for any meal. It’s inexpensive, filling, and delicious.
The colonizers recognized yuca’s power and took it to Africa and Asia.
In Mother Afrika, it’s called “cassava,” “manioc” (French for the Brazilian Tupi-Guarani word “mandioca”) or “muhogo.” In West Africa it can be used to make fufu.
In the Pacific, yuca is called some version of “tapioca” or “manioka” and has become the main starch of the islands.
In Asia, yuca is often called “tapioca,” or “cassava.” It is used to make sweets, including the tapioca balls in your favorite Taiwanese Boba Tea.
Thailand is now one of the world’s major yuca producers. That’s where I first tasted it as a child.
I just figured out that those tapioca balls and the boiled yuca I eat for dinner are the same Amazonian Caribbean super food.
So come with me and Yúcahu. Let’s explore New York’s Latin World, the city of enchantment. ¡Ay bendito!
¡WEPA! “E-le-le, le-le-le…” ¡Ashé!