Description
Nelson Baez shares his passion for the music of Bomba, Puerto Rico’s oldest genre of music, with communities of all kinds. His Bomba y Plena group, Los Cimarrones, performs in senior centers, concert halls, schools, and youth shelters in Middlesex County, NJ and beyond. With his wife Magda, a dancer and co-director of Los Cimarrones, Nelson works to create community and nurture a new generation of young dancers, singers, and drummers. Included in the story are students from his ongoing multi-generational class at the Puerto Rican Association for Human Development in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. In 2024, Nelson Baez received a New Jersey Heritage Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for his contribution to the Puerto Rican tradition of Bomba.
Produced by Susan Wallner for State of the Arts. Director of Photography Joe Conlon, Assistant Camera Jack Stawowczyk.
