Kombilesa Mi with Mosart212 @ Fort Sumner (Top of the World) Park

Hailing from Palenque, the first free Black town in the Americas, Kombilesa Mi plays an electrifying fusion of traditional Afro-Colombian music and modern rap.  The musical collective is inspiring a whole new generation to love hip hop, love being Black, and to rap in Palenquero, the language of their ancestors. Kombilesa Mi is a unique ensemble-preserving their cultural heritage while creating original hip hop music. Much in the vain of hip hop culture in the USA, Kombilesa Mi has created a strong identity and community, using hip hop to teach their native Palenquero language and cultural heritage.

Kombilesa Mi’s connection, awareness, and joy of their African roots is infectious and crucial to claim in Colombian culture and in the larger diaspora. Colombia has the second highest percentage of African descendants in Latin America after Brazil. The band’s presence serves to educate, uplift and to bridge communities— especially important in a time of increased violence, ignorance and loss of languages.

Weaving in call and response, dance, and traditional Afro-Colombian rhythms, Kombilesa Mi engages the audience in a high energy and interactive performance.

Opening the evening is conductor of the funky symphonies, Portland’s post-modern beat maestro Mosart212. Mo is a pillar of Portland’s electronic music community, from inspiring beat-nights to leading workshops to rocking dancefloors and collaborating across genre and beyond. A true master of original production, head-nodding grooves, crate-dug samples, and globe-trotting rhythms, Mosart212 delivers long-form sets full of far-out beats palatable to the uninitiated. Listen.

Made possible with support from a New England Foundation for the Arts NEST Grant.