Upcoming / Ongoing Activities
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African heritage in Puerto Rico: Seminars and virtual conferences in March.
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Presentation and distribution of a new method of Jazz theory for the Puerto Rican cuatro.
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Establishment of a commission to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.
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Project Rescued from Oblivion: reproducing long-lost Caribbean musical instruments.
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Establishment of an online store of the Center's publications.
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Establishment of a manual workshop in May at the Center for the fabrication of a Puerto Rican tiple.
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Preparation of an e-book of essays on different aspects of the music and musical instruments of Puerto Rico.
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Dissemination of our new video documentary on the history of the Puerto Rican tiple.
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Dissemination of our new documentary: a video-manual on the construction of a Puerto Rican tiple.
December 1, 2023 to present
Casa Paoli opens a traveling exhibition of
19th-century Puerto Rican stringed instruments
In December 2023, Casa Paoli of the Research Center for Puerto Rican Folklore, Inc., inaugurated the first in a series of events related to the traveling exhibition of traditional musical instruments of Puerto Rico: "Rescate del olvido" [Rescue from Oblivion]. The first stop was at the library of the Museo de Arte de Ponce. The exhibition included a display of several replicas—cuatros, tiples dolientes, tiples requintos, and mandonuas—of our country's traditional musical instruments, original examples of which were taken from Puerto Rico to Germany in 1888 and then to Washington in 1898.
The opening was attended by a large group of students from the Ponce School of Fine Arts, the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, artists, and the general public. Casa Paoli also invited the renowned Puerto Rican luthier based in Massachusetts, William R. Cumpiano, who gave a lecture on the instruments. This innovative initiative toured the country's libraries, continuing in February 2024 at UPR/Ponce and the Puerto Rican Conservatory of Music in San Juan.
March 4, 2022 to present
Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the
Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico (1873-1823)
Casa Paoli of the Research Center for Puerto Rican Folkore, Inc., brought together a group of artists, musicians, humanists, and scholars in a Commemorative Commission for the Sesquicentennial of the Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico.
Today, more than ever, the country needs to be informed about and recognize the great contributions of Africans who were forced to reach our shores and joined the living forces of our country and, by dint of their sweat and blood, offered their lives to our people. People of African descent continue to contribute to the material and spiritual development of Puerto Rico.
In March 2022 and 2023, the entire country commemorated its 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery with pride and dignity. The Commission's programs began with three talks by three important humanists—sponsored by the Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Flamboyán Fund for the Arts, and Friends Society of the Center-Casa Paoli—on the historical contribution of Afro-descendants, in Puerto Rico and among its diaspora.
Since its foundation, the Center has been dedicated to researching, enriching, and disseminating Puerto Rican cultural values. This is confirmed by the number of events and publications carried out by the Center. One of our most important objectives is to raise awareness and provide our young people with the opportunity to learn how to fabricate the traditional instruments of our country. Among the activities carried out for these purposes, the following stand out:
1. The exhibition My Music: Traditional Instruments of Puerto Rico (2014-2015) that was on display for two years at the Museo de las
Américas in Old San Juan and is now one of the permanent exhibits at Casa Paoli;
2. In Isabela, together with the Mabodamaca Corporation, we celebrated Encounter with the Marimbula (2010); and
3. Organized in Ponce, in alliance with the Cuatro Project, was an encounter with researchers of string instruments (1997) and a
contest for the fabrication of a cuatro antiguo, tiple, and bordonúa (1999).
The Center has continued to organize the William Cumpiano Art Workshop in our headquarters in Ponce where, with the support of the Flamboyán Fund for the Arts, instrument assembly, and serigraphy and engraving workshops (2022-2023) were conducted. Currently, we are planning a virtual workshop, open to the public, on the fabrication of the Puerto Rican tiple.