Bedford’s First Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Bomba Celebration!

Saturday, October 2, 2021, 3:00-4:30 pm
Bedford’s First Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Bomba Celebration!
Middlesex Community College, Springs Road, Bedford, MA 01730 

Bedford’s inaugural Indigenous Peoples Day celebration will honor the history, culture, and living presence of Indigenous Taino peoples of the Caribbean. The event will feature remarks by educator and Indigenous rights activist Claudia Fox Tree (Taino/Arawak) whose years of community engagement laid the groundwork for the successful passage of Indigenous Peoples Day in Bedford. Boston-based BOMBAntillana will lead a fun and participatory celebration of Bomba, a traditional music and dance form that was developed over 400 years ago in Boriken (Puerto Rico) by enslaved and free Taino and African Bantu peoples. Having originated on sugar cane plantations of Spanish colonizers, Bomba was, and continues to be, a powerful means of creative expression, healing, and resistance.

This event will take place on the central quad at Middlesex Community College, Springs Rd., in Bedford. It is free and family-friendly, with plenty of parking available. Bring your own chairs/blankets for seating. In the event of rain, the program will take place in a tent on site or in the nearby East Café. Masks are required. For more information, contact [email protected].

Sponsored by Indigenous Peoples Day Bedford, Bedford Embraces Diversity, and the Parents Diversity Council. We are grateful to Middlesex Community College for generously granting the use of their facilities.