Manuela Arciniegas

Manuela Arciniegas is a drummer, songwriter, singer and dancer specializing in Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican traditional music. She graduated from Harvard in 2001 and has been working in education, cultural arts and community organizing, since then. Manuela performs and teaches Afro-Puerto Rican and Afro-Dominican music with various troupes around NYC, including Yaya All-Women’s Drumming Troupe, Alma Moyo, La 21 Division, Kumba Car- ey, Grupo Kalunga Neg Mawon, Nchila Ngoma, and William Cepeda’s Afro- Boricua. She is the recipient of the 2008 Urban Artist Initiative and the Found- er, Director, and Program Coordinator of The Legacy Circle, a nonprofit she founded in 2005. Manuela is currently pursuing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the CUNY Graduate Center.