Music & Fiction

Raquel Z. Rivera just completed her debut CD with Ojos de Sofía titled Las 7 salves de La Magdalena! The New York release will be September 10th, 7 pm, at St. Mark’s Church in the East Village. The Puerto Rico release will be October 16, 7 pm, at Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular in Old San Juan.

You can listen to the music on the music player below, or you can go to Reverb Nation or MySpace. The CD and downloads are available for purchase on iTunes, CD Baby, DigStation, Amazon, and many other sites.

Raquel Z. Rivera is also currently at work on a novel titled Beba, a breakup story set in the underbelly of El Barrio/East Harlem—a tiny corner of the world populated by young musicians and other struggling artists and dreamers who love and fight each other in the name of honoring traditions and community-building. The project draws from Rivera’s ethnographic, journalistic and artistic endeavors in the neighborhood that has been her home for over a decade.

Excerpts of this work-in-progress have been published in Claridad and Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. She has read excerpts at literary events and conferences at Cemí Underground (2008), Center for Puerto Rican Studies (2007), Lava Gina Bar (2006), Hostos Community College (2005, 2004), Bronx Academy of the Arts and Dance (2005), Boricua College (2005, 2004) and Bowery Poetry Club (2004).

“Alma Moyo, para la familia Acosta,” photo courtesy of Amy Ponce.

The novel is closely related to Rivera’s work as a singer-songwriter with Puerto Rican and Dominican roots music groups since 1999. A founding and current member of bomba group Alma Moyo, she is featured as lead vocalist in the song “Socio” contained in the group’s forthcoming album No hay sábado sin sol. She is a founding and former member of Boricua roots music group Yerbabuena and also of Yaya, an all-women’s collective dedicated to Puerto Rican bomba and Dominican salves.

She has also performed with jíbaro music legends Nito Méndez and Alfonso Vélez, internationally-renowned Dominican folk/fusion artists Xiomara Fortuna and Luis Dias, and New York City-based Caribbean roots music groups Pa’ lo Monte, Palo Mayor, Kalunga, Los Instantáneos de la Plena and Los Bomberos de Brooklyn. She has performed at SOBs, Satalla Temple of World Music, Lincoln Center’s La Casita Festival, Nuyorican Poets Café, Hostos Community College, Yale University and the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., among numerous other venues.

 

 Socio Live at Camaradas [3:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Salve Reina [1:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Anaizo Corazon: Play Now | Play in Popup

Alma Moyó music sample: “Socio” (traditional song / additional lyrics by Raquel Z. Rivera)

• Lead singer: Raquel Z. Rivera
• Genre: Bomba (güembé corrido)

Yaya music sample #1: “Salve Reina” (music and lyrics by Raquel Z. Rivera)

• Lead singer: Raquel Z. Rivera
• Genre: Salve

Yaya music sample #2: “Anaíso/Corazón” (music and lyrics by Raquel Z. Rivera)

• Lead singer: Raquel Z. Rivera 
• Genre: Bomba (yubá)

Photo mid-page, “Alma Moyo, para la familia Acosta,” photo courtesy of Amy Ponce, taken at a 2005 street jam in solidarity with the Acosta family, brutalized by police officers two years earlier.