Loco for Love Encuentros with Music, Dance, & Diversity in Florida History

Loco for Love Encuentros bring musicians, dancers, storytellers, scholars, and invited observers (members of the general public) together, in the same room, to explore specific aspects, themes, or eras in Florida history from a variety of different perspectives. Encuentros offer a flexible format – part lecture-demo, part jam session, part mini-concert, part Q&A, part rehearsal, part performance, part sneak peek behind the scenes, part scholarly talk, part think tank, part time travel – for encountering history and making discoveries about music, dance, drama, and diversity. Florida history is packed with perspectives that we sorely need today – perspectives on how past Floridians have wrestled with urgent questions about race relations, public health, cultural exchange, regime change, and civil liberties. To explore the 200th anniversary of Florida becoming US Territory and the 30th anniversary of Dr. Housewright’s History of Music & Dance in Florida, we are targeting these themes for Encuentros this spring: Native Florida, exploring Native American music, dance, storytelling, and cultural presence in Florida Black Florida, exploring music, dance, storytelling, and hidden histories of African presence in Florida Florida during the 1600s, exploring music, dance, and drama in Florida during the late Renaissance and Early Modern eras (late 1500s and 1600s) Florida during the 1700s, exploring music, dance, and hidden histories in Florida during the Baroque era Florida during the early 1800s, exploring music, dance, and social practices in Florida during the Regency or early Territorial era.