'Beat of the Boroughs' showcases the immigrant performers who make NYC unique

The Beat of the Boroughs series will feature the group Grupo Rebolu, which includes Johanna Castaneda of Whitestone. Photo courtesy of CTMD

By David Brand

A Brooklyn-based ensemble of indigenous Crimean Tatars will take the virtual stage this evening, kicking off a new performance series that highlights the work of dozens of New York City immigrant performers whose livelihoods are threatened by COVID venue closures.  

The Center for Traditional Music and Dance’s Beat of the Boroughs: NYC Online series will feature 54 immigrant artists from across New York City, with each playing music, performing dances or telling stories mixing their native customs with local perspectives. 

The online program showcases the city’s unparalleled artistry, cultural diversity and the “amazing people who make New York New York and America America,” said Dr. Andrew Colwell, the CTMD project director and staff ethnomusicologist. 

The series broadcasts three performers per week and will begin with the Crimean Tatar ensemble Monday, followed by a Chinese American percussion team Wednesday and a West African drummer who incorporates sacred ancestral masks on Friday.

Each performer has adapted to a crisis that has had a dramatic impact on their music and their ability to earn a living with performance venues closed..CTMD encourages donations from online audience members.

“In various ways, all of the artists are responding and adapting to the pandemic,” Colwell said.

That dynamic is exemplified in Wednesday’s performance, he said. The Mencius Society, a Manhattan-based group, performs using Chinese percussion and the yangqin, or hammered dulcimer. “They share their experiences with what it’s like being Chinese Americans and the prejudice experience they have faced as a result of the pandemic,” he said.

The COVID crisis has taken a major financial toll on New York City artists. The city has lost more than 208,000 arts and creative sector jobs that would have generated more than $8.5 billion in monthly earnings, the Brookings Institute reported in August. 

Immigrant performers have felt a disproportionate impact because they often face impediments to securing federal funding or foundation grants, said CTMD Executive Director Peter Rushefsky. Beat of the Boroughs will provide some exposure and much needed financial support, Rushefsky said.

“New York City’s traditional and folk artists have been particularly impacted by both the pandemic and the anti-immigrant political climate in our country,” he said. “Now more than ever we need to support these artists, who have suffered losses because of canceled concerts, performances, exhibitions, and other events.”