Arts at the Armory welcomes back cuatro player, singer, composer, and educator Fabiola Méndez as a headliner to our Spotlight Series. Her artistic vision and original music focus on the exploration of her culture, her ancestry, and her identities.

Native to Caguas, PR, Méndez began playing the cuatro, a 5-double string traditional guitar of Puerto Rico, when she was 6 years old. In 2018 she graduated from Berklee College of Music as the first student to play the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.

To open the concert, there will be a special viewing of Méndez’ first documentary, “Negrura” (released in 2022). The film is an audiovisual storytelling experience that showcases the stories of Afro-Latinx folks from Boston’s Latin Quarter Cultural District. Music, at the core of the project, creates spaces for reflective and healing conversations about colorism, anti-blackness, discrimination, and racism within the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinx communities.

Fabiola Méndez’ performance is funded in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Somerville, and in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Experience Chris Pureka live in Somerville on September 22nd as part of Arts at the Armory’s Spotlight Series. Doors at 7pm and opening sets begin at 8pm. After a five-year recording hiatus, Chris Pureka is touring their latest album The Longest Year, a collection of tender and hopeful songs written and recorded during the pandemic.  

Kym Register, contributing a politically charged, queer lens to the southern rock ethos, is touring with Pureka and will open. Boston-based roots music favorite Rachel Sumner will also play an opening set. 

Funded in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the City of Somerville

Petición disponible en español (haga clic en el botón de arriba)
Petição disponível em português (clique no botão acima)
Petisyon disponib an kreyol ayisyen (klike sou bouton anlè a)

The Center for Arts at the Armory heats up the stage this summer with “Feet Keep the Beat”–a new annual multicultural percussive dance festival! CAA is thrilled to bring together vibrant and diverse communities of Flamenco, Irish, Tap, Kathak, Body Percussion and other flavors of percussive dance from around the world. Join us on August 4th for the Feet Keep the Beat Festival Showcase Performance (doors at 7pm | show at 8pm). The performance program will include:

Anjali Nath (Kathak)
Ariaki Dandawate (Kathak)
DrumatiX (Tap / Body Percussion / Drumming)
Fourth Dimension (Tap)
Khalid Hill (Tap)
Jackie O’Riley and Rebecca McGowan (Irish)
Yosi Karahashi (Flamenco)

This will be the Boston area’s first ever festival of this type, and we invite you to join us August 1 – 4, 2023 in celebrating these thriving communities during this four-day festival of classes, jams and an exciting Showcase Performance on August 4th. Please check the ticket link for more information about classes and jams. See you at Feet Keep the Beat!

The Feet Keep the Beat Festival was intentionally planned to coincide with the Boston Tap Party Festival produced by Deborah Mason as a convergence of both local and visiting tap and percussive dance artists, teachers and students, providing opportunities to diverse Greater Boston dance communities and audiences and beyond. The Deborah Mason Performing Arts Center will be conducting the Boston Tap Party in Somerville, MA from August 3 – 6, 2023, including a Boston Tap Party Faculty Showcase Performance on August 5th 7pm at Arts at the Armory. Click here to learn more.