On Saturday, July 29, families are invited to join us for Make It Rooted!, the latest in our Make It! festival series. Create, listen, build, and learn as a family through stories, art, nature, and design! Each month we explore new themes with interactive activities for children and their caregivers.

Make It Rooted! explores different traditions and ecosystems through dance, art, music, and storytelling. Make It Rooted! is in collaboration with Abya Yala Arte y Cultura. Portions of this program will be in English and Spanish.

Friends of the High Line: For those unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe it? How did you get started?
Abya Yala Arte y Cultura: Abya Yala Arte y Cultura presents, promotes and celebrates the cultural identity of the native communities of Peru focusing on the Andean region and the diffusion of its living, thriving cultures. Our objective is to increase awareness of Andean culture through programs that are community grounded, intergenerational and inclusive, in order to help educate and promote understanding across cultures.

Food! Music! Dance! Art! These are the deeply-rooted cultural expressions that initially brought us together, eventually growing into an affinity group around shared values and deep cultural pride.

FHL: What kind of stories do you feel your work tells? How does it tell those stories to young people specifically?
AYAC: Ours are stories that reflect the core values that are embedded in our traditions and reflect our relationship with our natural surroundings. We see art and performance as a form of community building, and as a means to envision and be part of building a better world.

We embrace rituals and myths, spirituality, oral traditions, art, music and dance, as means of cultural expression and also of survival.

We place importance in providing hands-on activities that are fun, engaging, educational and interactive; maximizing the interaction between the public and the working artists to provide opportunities that involve entire families in intergenerational participation.

FHL: How does your work speak to the NY community?
AYAC: Our workshops promote pride and a sense of belonging. We take into account the importance of maintaining deep-rooted traditions as we engage our community in an interactive creative process, providing opportunities to participate and share with the community at large. As we share our stories, our art, and our culture, it enables us to express issues of identity and shared concerns and aspirations.

FHL: Tell us a little about what you have planned for Make It!
AYAC: Make It Rooted!, seemed like a natural fit for our work.

In a setting resembling an Andean town square, Make it Rooted! will highlight creative visual arts & craft forms and showcase deeply rooted cultural expressions-music, dance and storytelling-that have passed and survived through time in our communities. Participating artists will engage the community in an interactive creative process, exposing everyone to the diversity of Andean arts. The workshops will be followed by a music and dance performance that culminates in a Fiesta, where we converge to share and build community and to celebrate as one in communal solidarity and belonging.

FHL: What would you like attendees to take away from your performance?
AYAC: One of our main aims is to explore the common links between cultures and encourage civic engagement and dialogue.

FHL: What makes the High Line as a venue unique or challenging to you and your work?
AYAC: We are very proud to participate in a venue that has, in a very short time, become a symbol that represents New York City is all of its splendor. This is a great opportunity for our artists to partner with a mainstream arts and culture organization to further promote the Andean perspective to a larger audience.

Make It Rooted!
10AM – 1PM
On the High Line at 16th St.
Rain or shine
For children ages 0-12 (and their caregivers)

SUPPORT

High Line Families is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council.