Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC)’s Folk Arts program and Prospect Park Alliance announce the inaugural Brooklyn Roots Festival taking place on Sunday, July 29, in the Prospect Park Children’s Corner. The folk arts festival celebrates Brooklyn’s traditional artists and immigrant communities through a daylong schedule of performances, workshops, interactive family activities and more. The free event serves as the highlight of BAC’s Tradition as Resistance series of public programs, celebrating the work and perseverance of Brooklyn’s traditional and folk artists in a moment of social and political ferment.

The festival’s Main Stage will feature Palestinian dance ensemble Freedom Dabkah, Haitian drumming group Fanmi Asòtò, Afro-Puerto Rican group drum and dance ensemble Bomba Yo, and other groups representing Yiddish, Serbian, and the African diaspora.

In addition to the performance Main Stage, a workshop station will engage audiences with activities led by groups including the Queer Kitchen Brigade, the food-agro project working in solidarity with Puerto Rico’s sustainable agroecology movement; Gran Bwa and the Congo Square Drummers, sharing their longtime tradition of sharing tradition and ritual in the Prospect Park Drummer’s Grove; and dance and music workshops.

To RSVP, visit www.prospectpark.org/bkroots.

PERFORMERS

MAIN STAGE

1 pm D'Radoes Steel Orchestra

2 pm ROSA

3 pm Tsibele

4 pm Freedom Dabka Group

5 pm BombaYo

6 pm Fanmi Asòtò with Ra Ra Procession

WORKSHOP STAGE

1:30 pm Queer Kitchen Brigade

2 pm Queer Kitchen Brigade

2:30 pm Queer Kitchen Brigade

3:30 pm Gran Bwa

4: 30 pm Freedom Dabka: Dance Workshop

5:30 pm Tai Chi with Qi Tao Brooklyn

CHILDRENS STAGE

1:30 pm Tammy Hall

1:30 pm Brooklyn Children's Museum: "Holding History"

2:00 pm City Lore: "What We Bring: New Immigrant Gifts"

3:30 pm Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre

4:30 pm Father Goose Music

5:30 pm Rabbit Days and Dumplings

Plus face painting from 2-5 pm!

Brooklyn Arts Council events and programs are made possible, in part, through public funds from: National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, and Humanities New York. Major corporate support for BAC Folk Arts is provided by TD Bank.

Many thanks to our Brooklyn Roots Festival co-sponsors: Green Mountain Energy and The Kings Theatre.