Dance

Richmond powwow honors Native American culture and veterans: ‘It helps the native community be seen.’

The atmosphere was joyous at Veterans Hall in Richmond Saturday, where more than 100 people celebrated Native American culture with drumming, singing, crafts, food and the traditional dancing contest.  This year’s 13th Annual Richmond Contest Powwow  was held during Native American Heritage Month and on Veterans Day, which organizers saw as an opportunity to honor the many native people who have served in the military.  “It is great that we are finally being recognized,” said Jordan Wilson of Stockton, whose…

Afro-Peruvian dance in Richmond: ‘We are making sure the tradition is still alive for future generations.’

On a cloudy Saturday morning, Carmen Román and her husband, Pierr Padilla, filled the basement of the Golden Gate Library in Oakland with a symphony of sounds, using their feet, hands and traditional Afro-Peruvian instruments. A small group of children shrieked with glee and bumbled around the room, dancing as their parents nodded to the beat being created by Román and Padilla opening and closing the top to their cajitas, a box-shaped Latin percussion instrument, and hitting it with a…

Spirit and Soul festival aims to revive downtown

The seventh annual Spirit and Soul Festival filled downtown with the rhythmic beats of jazz musicians and the enticing smells of fried chicken and barbecue. Put on by the Richmond Main Street Initiative, a nonprofit organization that works to reinvigorate the downtown, the festival drew about 800 people this year–and there would have been more, organizers insisted, were it not for the sizzling heat.