Tumbao Collective is a Louisville-based nonprofit organization that builds community through art, music, and movement. They host a free event called Tumbao Tuesdays, where they collaborate with local creatives, including visual artists Megan Lenahan and Morgan McGill, glass artist Shawn Ford, and the seven-piece Latin band Yapa!
The next Tumbao Collective event is a Spring Social at Foko (991 Logan St.), the Southern-inspired Mexican restaurant in Shelby Park, on Friday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. The event is a fundraiser for the Americana World Community Center in Beechmont. Americana provides a full spectrum of educational and social support services for immigrants and refugees in Louisville.
Supporting a vital local resource
Americana World Community Center is supported entirely by grants, sponsorships, its own fundraising events, and individual donors. A significant amount of grant money Americana receives comes from local and regional foundations who themselves are the primary recipients of federal funds. But recent cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency have threatened Americana — which is usually a secondary recipient of federal funds — with permanent closure.
Although admission to the Spring Social is by donation, Tumbao Collective encourages a minimum donation of $10 because donations will directly support Americana. In order to continue serving immigrant, refugee, and economically underserved communities in Louisville, Americana needs to secure $520,000 by Monday, June 30. Every dollar matters.
Dancing at the fundraiser — and beyond
The Tumbao Collective is named for the rhythm played on the conga drum and the bass in Afro-Cuban music. The name of the rhythm is derived from the Cuban Spanish use of “tumbar” meaning “to knock over.” At the Spring Social, the floor will be open for bachata, salsa, and merengue dance all night — or at least until the event is scheduled to end at midnight.
Bachata is a 20th-century musical genre that originated in the Dominican Republic. Its stylistic amalgam of Spanish folk as well as indigenous Taíno and African tone colors exemplifies the cultural diversity of the Dominican people. The music soon inspired its own dance form. Bachata is a couple dance with a lead and a follow that can be performed in open, semi-closed, or closed positions.
Dominican musician and bandleader Johnny Pacheco brought a New York style of Cuban dance music into wide public awareness in the 1960s. He called the music, its corresponding dance style, and the culture that developed around it “salsa” and never looked back. Salsa includes elements of Latin styles like mambo, rumba, and son as well as American styles like hustle, swing, and tap, so it is usually a couple dance.
As a style of music and movement, merengue is also Dominican in origin. Merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic. Because it is performed as a danced walk, it is accessible even to inexperienced dancers, which makes it popular well beyond the Dominican shores.
Louisvillians who are ready to dance should join Tumbao Collective in their fundraising event at Foko on Friday, April 4 — and again for Tumbao Tuesdays throughout the spring and summer.
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This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2025.
