New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
In the early part of the spring semester in 2013, then advisor of the Bristol Community College Portuguese Club and Co-Director of LusoCentro, José Costa, and then President of the Portuguese Club, Brian Martins, discussed the opportunity to help promote the Portuguese culture, heritage, customs, courtesies and traditions through a special event. Mr. Martins suggested an event similar to the former annual Festas das Bandas Portuguesas founded by the late Heitor deSousa, who also founded the Grandes Festas do Espirito Santo da Nova Inglaterra held at Kennedy Park in Fall River. Mr. Martins was an active participate of the event playing several instruments with Portuguese bands since 1992 until the festival ended in the mid 90’s. The idea with this new event was not only to help promote and assist preservation of the culture, but also to help develop further youth involvement in the culture.
An idea was created for an initial Night of Folklore that will feature several groups, using the income as support for those participating and provide several scholarships. In preparation of this, Grupo Folclórico Saudades da Terra would bring several of their rehearsals from the Fall River Sports Club to the Bristol Community College’s main campus. Students interested in the culture could join the practice and learn to dance; sometimes earning extra credit for Portuguese courses. Unfortunately, Mr. Martins was a first responder/EMT working in the Boston area and responded to the tragedy of the Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack on April 15th . The Portuguese Club under Mr. Costa and Mr. Martins’ leadership then changed plans to help organize a donation collection on behalf of the Portuguese community to help the victims through the Boston One Fund, becoming one of the first state schools to take the lead in helping the victims. Now Mr. Martins has returned to work with Carlos Almeida, the current director of the LusoCentro, to bring the once idea of an event to reality.
On Saturday, April 1st at 6:00 PM, LusoCentro will be hosting the first Uma Noite Folclórica. The night will feature folklore groups and ranchos from throughout New England to share the culture while working together to help raise funds. LusoCentro is hosting the event in the Margaret L. Jackson Arts Center Theater on the main campus at 777 Elsbree Street in Fall River. Sound, which will be provided for by Underground Sound; lighting, tickets, promotional items, scholarships and raffle prizes will be provided for by Mr. Martins, making it possible to have all funds raised from ticket sales and the raffle to be equally divided amongst the folklore groups/ranchos in attendance and LusoCentro. Some of the groups, so far, include Rancho Folclórico Portuguese United for Education of New Bedford, MA; Rancho Folclórico Portugal Canta e Dança of Danbury, CT; the Taunton Portuguese Folklore Group of Taunton, MA; and the Grupo Folclórico do Cranston Portuguese Club of Cranston, RI. The event will close with a performance by Mauricio Morais, the awarding of several scholarships and the awarding of the raffle.
The raffle prizes will be announced on the 1st of March. $1000 will be available for college scholarships to members of the groups in college. The directors of the folklore groups will be given the applications for the scholarships and will team with several professors to decide who will be awarded the scholarships and the amount. A major factor to the awarding of a scholarship will be the level of commitment to the group, culture and family. In addition to this, 4 $150 mini-scholarships will be made available for those younger members attending a Portuguese language school while showing the same strong commitment. These Portuguese Language Schools would include the Discovery Language Academy of New Bedford or the Escola Portuguesa in Cranston.
If any folklore groups have an interest in taking part, but have not been contacted yet, feel free to contact Brian Martins on his cell at 774-417-1295 or via email at Brianma1977@yahoo.com. There will be a lunch meeting for directors at the TA Restaurant (Tabacaria Açoreana) at 12 Noon on February 18th . The address to the TA is 408 South Main Street in Fall River and will be held in the private room. Lunch will be provided by Mr. Martins and scholarship applications, posters and tickets will be available.
If anyone would like to reserve tickets for the event, the tickets are $15 each and you can call Mr. Martins at the aforementioned phone number or email address; or you may contact your local participating folklore group. Bristol Community College Students may present your ID at the entrance of the event and receive a $5 rebate.
