From Rhode Island: L ydia Perez is the founder and artistic director of the Puerto Rican Institute of Arts and Advocacy, Inc., (PRIAA), and founder of Yoruba 2, an award-winning and nationally recognized traditional music group from Puerto Rico. The group is known for playing genres of Puerto Rican folk music such as "bomba", and other Caribbean rhythms. Lydia has spent the last twenty-eight years as an interpreter and cultural educator/activist in the United States as well as Puerto Rico, Cuba and has been recognized as a Presenter, Artists Producer, Artisan of Wood Carver, Paper Mache Masks making and a community asset in Rhode Island. Her work has been in great demand by the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts (RISCA), the Rhode Island Foundation, the RI Council on the Humanities, Providence Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, First Work, Pawtucket Foundation, Hartford Performs, New England cultural arts organizations, school departments in Rhode Island, Connec

From La Isla del Encanto, Puerto Rico, we bring you Oscar Noel Carrasco Escalera, born in Piñones, Loiza, Puerto Rico.He began his first musical experiences at the age of 5, with his main instrument, “El Timbal”. At the age of 11 in 2001, he entered the Ernesto Ramos Antoninni Free High School of Music, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, completing his degree in high school in 2007. In 2008 he entered Inter Metro University, completing a Bachelor of Arts & Popular Music. He is currently working on his company www.carrascomusic.com, founded together with his older brother in 2020, where teaching modules on our culture, local and international instruments and their proper execution are presented. The purpose is to be able to transfer knowledge and experience to all young people around the world. Yaya Mzuri is born through the ancestral and spiritual connection of the Puertorrican culture. Singer-songwriter of the Bomba “De Los Tambores la Medicina” a Calindá (Bomba Rhythm) rooted in the