Brooklyn Raga Massive is excited to be a part of the Accordions Around the World Festival, curated by Ariana Hellerman. The year features women-led projects from around the world, such as Diana Burco’s Colombian vallenato, Finland’s Suistamon Sähkö, and BRM’s all-female Ragini Ensemble. Bring your picnic blankets to Bryant park for an evening of mesmerizing music!

About the Artists

Exploring a merging of diasporic songs, matrilineal folk songs and beat-driven celebratory chutney anthems, the Ragini Ensemble gathers songs born out of the South Asian diaspora spread wide, fragmented and reforged in Reunion Island, Guyana and Trinidad. Speaking, or rather singing into the aesthetic body of work defined by the "Coolitude" movement, this set is inspired by the legacy of post-indentureship collective memory, nostalgia and reclamation of joy in the gathering to sing, itself a cultural practice known as "baithak gana" - an intimate act of sitting(or dancing) together in song. Tabla player/Electronic artist, Roshni Samlal, violinist/looper Natie, harmonium player/singer Pratima Doobay and dholak player/singer Kajol Ji re-envision the sounds of their homeland and history.