Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble

For the past twenty years, Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble has served mostly low-income children and youth of color in and around San Francisco’s historic Mission District, through Afro-Latino music, dance, drumming, theater, and stilt-walking rooted in the Carnaval traditions of Brazil and the Caribbean. Loco Bloco’s programming fosters youths’ physical, mental, and spiritual evolution, developing the life skills necessary to make better choices in school and relationships, to think critically and creatively, problem-solve, adapt to diverse situations, collaborate with others, practice self-discipline, and set meaningful goals. Funding for this dynamic group would allow Loco Bloco to focus more intentionally on its youth/family curriculum, track the impacts of the program over time, create an alumni network, and strengthen its organizational capacities.

Each year, Loco Bloco Dance and Drumming Ensemble provides free after-school drumming, dance, theater, and circus arts classes to 500 low-income, minority, and immigrant youth aged five to eighteen. By integrating traditional African and Latino music and dance with contemporary art forms such as reggae and hip-hop, the organization draws a diverse group of young people who are primarily youth of color; half the audience for Loco Bloco’s public performances is under the age of twenty-five. The company produces and performs at concerts and community events throughout the year, reaching thousands at San Francisco’s most prominent parades, Carnaval and Pride.

Founded in San Francisco’s predominantly Latino Mission District in 1994, Loco Bloco Dance and Drumming Ensemble (Loco Bloco) provides free after-school drumming, dance, theater and circus arts classes to 500 kids aged 4-18 annually. Led by a 26 year old Executive Director who learned percussion and leadership skills as a teenager through Loco Bloco’s Teen Ensemble, the company presents year round concerts, performs before thousands each year at San Francisco’s most prominent parades (Carnival and Pride) and programs a cultural youth exchange connecting local youth with young artists in countries throughout Latin America. A third of the kids Loco Bloco works with come from families making less than $20,000 a year, half are children of immigrants and two-thirds speak a language other than English at home. Forty-five percent are African American and forty percent are Latino; half the audience for Loco Bloco’s public performances is under 25. These young people of color engage in Loco Bloco’s programming because the company’s artist-instructors teach traditional African and Latino music and dance by integrating it with contemporary art forms such as reggae and hip-hop. By blending traditional and contemporary art forms, through its arts education programs and by virtue of its free programming support for Loco Bloco promotes each of the major objectives of the performing arts program. Because tuition and most performances are free, however, Loco Bloco supports its $400,000 annual budget primarily through private and government grants and will, with a first time general operating support, grow its board, and increase its individual fundraising efforts.