Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island

In April SCCRI is hoping to host Jose Soto, a Costa Rican jazz composer and pianist who recently created an original composition The Ancestral Call, in collaboration with Bribri community members, an indigenous group from eastern Costa Rica. We hope to bring them in for a conversation on ancestrality, indigenous knowledge, alongside a live performance featuring storytelling in the Bribri language. Soto invites listeners to a rich and bold cross-cultural dialogue that embodies the rupture of western colonial logic, with the support of prestigious artists including Cuban drummer Francisco Mela and saxophonist George Garzone. Bribri cultural ambassador Alí García Segura's voice is woven into Soto’s compositions illustrating the tensions of historical erasure of the indigenous and the need to disrupt the continuation of the legacy of colonialism.