August 2022 - TURN IT UP: ¡Globalquerque!
¡Globalquerque! is back after alternating its platform, fitting a post-COVID environment. Director Tom Frouge is excited to bring this global music event back to New Mexico and has some electrifying plans for this year's event.
You will be celebrating another year - congratulations! How does it feel?
Yes, 18 years, with 2020 being a virtual presentation for obvious reasons! 2020 messed up counting, among other things! It feels great to come back to our full-bloom madness. Team ¡Globalquerque! is very exciting, and we have some great stuff planned for this year!
What can we expect from this years event?
Well, again, for perhaps obvious reasons, while 2021 happened live, it was truncated. We couldn't have our ancillary programs like our Free Saturday Daytime Global Fiesta or our School outreach, so this year feels like a re-launch. To underscore, we have invited back a couple of heavy hitters from around the world when they first performed at ¡Globalquerque! were not as known: the renowned Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha is returning. We were their second-ever US date back in 2013, and now they are known around the globe! Award-winning Indian vocalist and songwriter Kiran Ahluwalia is also returning. She first performed at ¡Globalquerque! in 2007! And Taos Pueblo renaissance man and two-time Grammy winner Robert Mirabal will also be on hand! Of course, ¡Globalquerque! has always been a festival of discovery, and we will have 18 amazing acts with 21 performances on three stages over the evening portions for the weekend. There will also be artists visiting from Malawi, Estonia, Israel, Colombia, Diné Nation, Mali, México, Sweden, Brooklyn, Haiti, Panama, Ethiopia, and our New Mexican backyard, including Jemez Pueblo and the South Valley! We will also have a world premiere commission that we are stoked about!
The Free Global Fiesta is back from 10 AM - 3:30 PM, with more activities than ever for folks of all ages. Very excited about that! Visiting artists will be doing outreach programs. There will be international dance lessons, International food demos, film, and programs, including our Voices From Many Lands refugee and immigrant poetry presentation and New Mexico History Through New Mexico Tradition Music with our State Historian, musician Rob Martinez. This year our Global Fiesta community focus will be Northern New Mexico due to the potential devastation of culture due to the wildfires there. There will be loads of inter-activities, too, including Punched Tin craft making, Swedish and Ukrainian Stick Puppet making, Screen-printing on a tote bag that you can take home, and a freeform draw to global music activity. Also, Planet Music returns - our interactive musical instrument "petting zoo" where the only rules are "nice and please touch"!
Oh, and the Global Village of Craft, Culture & Cuisine is open during all festival parts with artisan and free trade crafts, international food, and, in the evening, beer and wine.
In the plus department, we have added a free opening Dance party and concert on Thursday evening. It will begin with a Global Headphone (silent disco) Dance Party with two NM DJs spinning global groves and light installations, ending with a "headphones-off" concert by the ground-breaking México City group, Son Rompe Pera, who is off the hook!
Lastly, we also have our 6-film International Cinema Series, which takes place weekly throughout September with films from countries represented by visiting artists. This year we have comedy from Sweden, drama from India, animation shorts from Latin America, documentaries from Ukraine and Estonia, and a horror drama from France/Haiti!)
How do you choose the performers for this event?
I started booking ¡Globalquerque! after I returned from WOMEX (World Music Expo) at the end of October. I also attend conferences throughout the year, like Mundial Montréal and FIMPRO in Guadalajara. Since being involved in global music and culture for decades, I talk with colleagues from around the world regularly and discover many fabulous acts that way, just trading info and new “holy cow, have you heard” moments. Of course, groups are pitched to me by agents, too. But I guess that answers how I find it, more than choosing the performers. Choosing is interesting. It is a curation. First, one goal is to represent all the continents each year. Another criterion is that no matter how cutting edge or contemporary the band might be, they must have one foot - or at least a few toes - in the culture from whence they come. Our mission statement is cross-cultural understanding through music and the arts, recognizing our similarities as we explore and celebrate our differences. The performers have to serve that vision, even though they are an explosive party band on stage - and many are.
Tell us how you connected with Sean Wells for this year’s poster.
Sean is an old friend. My wife is an award-winning Mexican magical realism painter and past ¡Globalquerque! poster artist, Jade Leyva (which is how we met!), and she knew Sean first - and Sean has been a Global Villager (vendor in our Global Village of Craft, Culture & Cuisine) for many years. She has always been on the shortlist to do the poster art, and boy, did she deliver! It is fun to pick poster artists each year. The criteria are simple; we have to like your art, and you have to have been to ¡Globalquerque!, because when we commission the artist, our only instruction is to give us your vision of ¡Globalquerque!
You established your own vino with the help of Sheehan Winery. Tell us a little more about it.
Well, it is not our own vino, but that is a fabulous idea! I will have to talk to Sean about that for 2023! Sheehan Winery is the official vino of ¡Globalquerque!, though! Our official brew is Santa Fe Brewing, Co.
How can people find out more about your event?
Before I answer that, I would like to say it is difficult to describe the event on paper or by talking about it. You have to experience it. We are only one of a handful of similar festivals in the US and the only one of its kind in the Southwest/Rocky Mountain regions. Every year, without fail, first-time attendees come up to me and say a variation on: “I had no idea this festival was THIS!” That said, our website has tons of info, including performing artist videos, day and night time schedules, a virtual Global Village, our 6-film International Cinema Series, and all kinds of information! They can also get on our mailing list for info on the festival and other Globalquerque! events we do year-round or our events with Santa Fe Public Library. We promise not to flood your inbox!
To purchase tickets or to learn more, visit their website at www.Globalquerque.org.
Author: Teresa Robinson - Publisher / Editor-in-Chief
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