Geko Jones and I cooked up a new mix (currently streaming in the To Be embed below - Soundcloud and download here!) to launch the now monthly Africa Latina party! It kicks off this Saturday at Brooklyn Tap House on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn. This is an official end of the summer day party – New York, it may be your last change to enjoy music in the sun for a few months!

The mix is part 2 in the Africa Latina series, an hour long journey through tarrachinha, kizomba, r&b, rap, funk, house, kuduro, perico ripiao, plena, palo and more! Extra bonus points for those who can name the places that each of those sounds refer to.

The added thread that Geko and I tried to tie in was an ode to our current host neighborhood: Ft. Greene/Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Anticipate a touch of the New York club feel, with a little harder edge than our previous Africa Latina mix. You know we had to show you another side of the Africa Latina experience!

Again, the whole Africa Latina idea is to draw connections between continents, and point to cultural similarities and affinities between people and places on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This isn’t something we initiated, the cultural conversation we’re trying to bring to the fore in 2013 has been happening for hundreds of years, and in no way have these dialogues been unidirectional. Just as much as we investigate the Afro side of the multi-faceted Latino identity, we are interested in the mestizo cultures that have arisen within African capitals and beyond (with an aim to deconstruct essentialist ideas of Africa and African culture.) We hope you enjoy as we continue to explore and re-imagine!