Immigrant Voices: A Celebration of Arts 2018

Gokh-Bi System and Members of Viva Quetzal join Center for New Americans for Immigrant Voices: A Celebration of Arts. Immigrant Voices: A Celebration of Arts returns for the third year . The event showcases immigrants’ artistic contributions to our Western Massachusetts community. This year, Gokh-Bi System, a well-known Senegalese band that combines hip hop with traditional West African music, and members of Viva Quetzal, a Massachusetts-based Latin-fusion band, join Center for New Americans’ students, alumni, and friends on stage. We welcome back Grupo Folklorico Tradiciones, the dance troupe featuring Latina staff members of the Amherst Regional Public Schools. 
Audi, a Greenfield student, recruited her classmates to participate, saying “All students should perform to represent their country.”  So far, students from Venezuela, Mexico, Tibet, Costa Rica, and Haiti have agreed to share their traditions in song and dance.  
Marilyn Sylla, director of the Bamidele Dancers and Drummers, and Five College Dance Lecturer, will once again direct the showcase.  Her experience and vision transform a disparate group of performers, ranging from the children’s dance group, El folklor latino, to a Tibetan singer, to a Portuguese actor into a polished and seamless performance. 
As President of the Shea Theater Arts Center, Monte (Christopher Belmonte), local radio host, has made it clear that the Center’s mission is to serve as a community performance space.  Center for New Americans relishes the opportunity to help to fulfill this mission every year.  Typically, the audience represents a broad cross-section of family and friends of the performers; staff and volunteers of Center for New Americans; and community members who appreciate music and dance from around the world.   
About Center for New Americans:  
 Center for New Americans has been welcoming and serving immigrants in Western Massachusetts for close to 25 years.  We teach English, computer skills, literacy, and career pathways.  All classes are free.We offer citizenship and immigration legal services. Center for New Americans has program sites in Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton and Turners Falls.