Lois Wilcken, PhD, La Troupe Makandal
Lois Wilcken, a native New Yorker, has had the pleasure of researching traditional music and dance in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. As Executive Director of La Troupe Makandal, Dr. Wilcken develops education and performance programs for the public. White Cliffs Media Company published her book, The Drums of Vodou, and one may visit an online version of her Vodou Music in Haiti exhibit at La MédiathèqueCaraïbe. She is currently documenting the life and legacy of Master Drummer Frisner Augustin (1948–2012) for a web archive and a biography, serving as Editorial Consultant for the Journal of Haitian Studies, and leading a working group on Haiti’s ecosystems for the Haitian Studies Association. She also works with jazz musicians on their scores and does some songwriting of her own.

Andrés D. Cisneros, M. Ed, Timbalona Collective Music Ensemble
Andrés is a professional musician and Teaching Artist with a specialization in hand percussion rooted in the African Diaspora, particularly in the Caribbean and South America. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, he was shaped by a multicultural family of progressive thinkers, artists, and educators. After migrating to the U.S. as a teenager, Andrés embraced his African heritage, embarking on a lifelong musical journey that helped him adapt to a new cultural landscape. In 2008, after completing his studies in Puerto Rico, Andrés moved to Philadelphia, where he has excelled as both a full-time music educator and a performing musician. Holding a M.Ed., he developed innovative music curricula at Independence Charter School and Impact Charter School, and ClavEd Music Education company, focusing on Afro-Caribbean percussion. As a practitioner of the Afro-Cuban Lucumí Ocha tradition, Andrés is an initiated priest of the Anya drums and is crowned as a child of Oshun. He is also an active freelance percussionist, collaborating with various artists as both a drummer and vocalist. Additionally, Andrés partners with organizations such as Musicopia, Young Audiences, and AMLA, where he leads workshops, assemblies, and educational programs that celebrate the rich traditions of Latin and Caribbean music.

Emanuel Dufrasne-González, PhD, Taller-Conjunto Paracumbé
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Emanuel completed a MA in
Music-Ethnomusicology from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and a PhD from the same university in Music-Ethnomusicology. Dufrasne-González is the founder of the music and dance ensemble Taller-ConjuntoParacumbé, with whom he has traveled the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean presenting mainly plena and bomba, the music and dance forms from Afro Puerto Rico. With Paracumbé, Dufrasne-González has presented workshops, illustrated lectures, conferences, and concerts, and has also recorded three albums, with a fourth one due to come out in 2024.

Dufrasne-González retired from his post as full professor from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, in 2022 and is a published author. His three books and many publications in a variety of periodicals on topics related to Puerto Rican music have made him be regarded as one of the leading scholars on the subject. Dufrasne-González is member of the Board of the Centro de Investigaciones Folklóricas de Puerto Rico, an advisor for the Music Division of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and a member of the Foro Latinoamericano de Educación Musical, FLADEM, Puerto Rico chapter. Dufrasne-González is the producer of the laureated radio show MusicaMundi, which airs every week on WRTU, Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico (www.radiouniversidad.pr).

Nelie Lebrón Robles, MA, Taller-Conjunto Paracumbé
Born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, Nelie completed a BA in Education, majoring in Music (voice) and Special Education from the University of Puerto Rico and a MA in Education of Talented Students form the same university. She is the main singer of the music and dance ensemble Taller-Conjunto Paracumbé since 1981. Nelie also is responsible for the vocal arrangements of Paracumbé and many other musical recordings dealing with Afro Puerto Rican Music. She is the first singer to perform Puerto Rican bomba music with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and to sing bomba music in the Festival Casals.

Lebrón Robles is a retired professor from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, where she was Chair of the Department of Music Education and General Studies until 2024. She has traveled the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean as a performer with Paracumbé and other ensembles, and also as a lecturer and speaker. She is a published author of two books dealing with preschool music education and is currently working on her first book of musical stories for children. Lebrón Robles is the producer of the radio program Ambos a dos, cuentos y canciones since 2006, the only radio show for children in Puerto Rico. Ambos a dos airs every Sunday morning on WRTU Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico. Nelie is a member of the Board of the Puerto Rico chapter of the Foro Latinoamericano de Educación Musical and a member of the Music Committee of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.

Veronica Yearwood, Researcher and Choreographer,
Antigua Dance Academy
Veronica Yearwood is a teacher, choreographer, cultural activist and a researcher based in Antigua & Babruda. She is the Founding Director of Antigua Dance Academy, which she established in 1991 and a Festival Director of the Caribbean Folk Dance Festival Out of the Drum. Her extensive research on masquerades as well as other forms of cultural heritage was conducted on many Eastern Caribbean islands, including Antigua & Babruda, St. Kitts, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

Veronica’s research aimed to compare various traditional arts, music and dance and identify cultural elements that connect them to both West African cultures and those introduced during the colonization period. As a dance teacher and choreographer, she worked with dance groups in different U. S. locations, including Miami, Rochester, Chicago, and Philadelphia area.

Mafalda Thomas-Bouzy, Performing Artist
A grassroots artist, Moko Jumbie stilt walker and cultural ambassador of dance. With over 30 years of experience as a teaching artist, Mafalda has engaged in intensive African traditional and Caribbean folk drum and dance study and cultural exchange projects both nationally and internationally, including Senegal and Mali West Africa, Bahia Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Martin, Antigua, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and recently the Bahamas. She taught Diaspora Rhythms and Dance courses at Villanova University, facilitated workshops and toured as a professor of Dance in France and England. Having studied under masters of their craft Mafalda prides herself in being a griot and storyteller and continues the efforts of cultural preservation. She received a grant award from the Pennsylvania Council for the arts for cultural preservation. “I’m currently exploring opportunities with educational institutions that will allow me to share my unique experiences and build solid relationships with those I serve and ultimately deepen my passion for cultural preservation through dance.”

Iveta Pirgova, PhD, Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center
Iveta Pirgova is the Director of the Folklife and Cultural Studies Department at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, NJ. Dr. Pirgova graduated from the Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria with a Master’s in Literature and Folklore as well as Cultural Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Folklore and Performance Studies from the Institute of Folklore and Ethnology at the Bulgarian Academy of Science. In 2000, Dr. Pirgova became the Director of Folklife and Cultural Studies at WheatonArts, overseeing the Down Jersey Folklife Center.

There, she has worked with more than 65 different ethnic communities, curating over 30 major exhibitions, many festivals, performances, artist residencies, educator training, workshops, and classes. She also teaches regular courses in Cultural Anthropology and Cultural Diversity at Rowan College of South Jersey and is actively involved with professional organizations such as the American Folklore Society, the American Anthropological Association and the International Organization of Folk Art (IOV World).

Ira Bond, M. Ed, Malidelphia Performing Arts
Ira L. Bond (Ibramim Diabate) is a performer, dancer, percussionist, educator, researcher, community activist, masquerade specialist, musician and cultural enrichment specialist for 30 years. Ira’s cultural, artistic and educational mission is to utilize arts as a means to develop positive relationships and to reintroduce African cultural values to the African Diaspora in our area. In his work as an educator, Ira emphasizes the development of a socialization process (Rite of Passage) and the creativity associated with traditional arts that can transform people to a higher realization of their life’s purpose. Ira has earned his B.A. in
Communications with a minor in African American studies from Mansfield
University. Earning a M. Ed. in Multicultural Education from Eastern
University, PA his thesis was “Teaching Content through the Arts”.

His interests in traditional cultures lead him to Antioch University to earn an honorary certificate in Malian Arts and Culture with concentrations in French/Bamana intensive, traditional Malian aesthetic, and a traditional apprenticeship with the National Ballet of Mali. Ira is a lead drummer for Messiah Dance Works of Philadelphia, and the Afro-Cuban dance company Kulu Mele. Ira is also the founder and director of the Malidelphia Performing Arts ensemble that serves to create a bridge between African immigrant and African-American communities through traditional song, dance, music, and masquerade. African masquerade is Ira’s specialty. Since he was initiated into its traditions in Mali and the Ivory Coast, Ira created over 20 traditional African masquerades – masks and garments. Ira uses drums, masks, and ritual to teach both children and adults how to pay respects to the ancestors while reflecting on our own mortality and imprint on our world.