There’s a postage stamp of urban sidewalk known by people of a certain age for having burned to the ground. A more recent generation knows it as the place where hip-hop was born.
An older generation remembers the time that this turf produced a New York Latin music sound that came to be known as salsa. From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A South Bronx Tale is an hour-long documentary that tells a story about the creative life of the South Bronx, beginning with the Puerto Rican migration and the adoption of Cuban rhythms to create the New York salsa sound; continuing with the fires that destroyed the neighborhood, but not the creative spirit of its people; chronicling the rise of hip-hop from the ashes; and ending with reflections on the power of the neighborhood’s music to ensure the survival of several generations of its residents, and, in the process, take the world’s pop culture by storm.
Q&A with legendary b-boys and Hip Hop legends Clemente “Kid Freeze” Moreno and Jorge “Popmaster Fabel” Pabon followed by music, dancing and refreshments in the downstairs lounge.
Maysles Cinema, 343 Lenox Ave/Malcolm X Blvd., New York, NY, 10027, www.maysles.org, cinema@maysles.org
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Harlem Cultural Archives is a donor and foundation-supported Historical Society, Its mission is to create, maintain and grow a remotely accessible, online, interactive repository of audio-visual materials documenting Harlem’s remarkable and varied multicultural legacies, including its storied past as well as its continuing contributions to the City and State of New York, the nation, and the world. Support Harlem Cultural Archives and click here to get more Harlem History, Thank you.