Death cab cuties: International Folk Art Market
The Afro-Colombian group Las Alegres Ambulancias head the opening show for the 11th annual International Folk Art Market. The band performs at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, July 10, in the Santa Fe Railyard Park. The rhythm-intense music features players on alegre, congalegre, and tambora drums; other percussion instruments, including maracas and a guache; and electric guitar and bass.
The market event begins at 5 p.m., with an hour and a half of artist demonstrations by people from Mexico, Haiti, Madagascar, South Africa, Myanmar, and Peru. Albuquerque poets Andrea Serrano and Carlos Contreras offer readings in the 5:10 to 5:40 p.m. slot. Four musical acts perform from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m.: Bali’s Ida Bagus Anom Suryawan, Akeem Ayanniyi of Nigeria, Madagascar’s Edmond Rivo Randrianarisoa, and Alba Rosa Sepúlveda Tapia and Wilfredo Arriagada Sepúlveda of Chile.
The event’s yearly procession of artists — more than 100 people from more than 60 nations — starts at 7:30 p.m., after which Las Alegres Ambulancias take the stage. Known in English as the Jolly Ambulances, the nine-member group was founded 109 years ago in the northern Colombian village of San Basilio de Palenque. “Each time a villager dies, the family of the deceased calls for the Jolly Ambulances to perform during the funeral wake, which must last nine days and nights,” according to the Palenque Records website. As explained on the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s website, the group’s chantlike music is traditionally played during funerals to “accompany the duel occurring between death and the family members” of the deceased. The market continues through July 13. Admission to the Railyard Park events is free. For information, visit www.folkartalliance.org.
— Paul Weideman