For the second year in a row, Roots & Riddims returns as a gathering space for Black expression, ancestral connection, and collective celebration. A night of music and culture bringing Surinamese, Cabo Verdean, Angolan and Caribbean diasporas together.

In a multidisciplinary environment where music, art, history, politics, spirituality and performance meet, Black art becomes more than self-expression — it becomes transformation. A force that carries stories, resistance, healing, and possibility across generations.

This year’s edition is inspired by life and death through a decolonial lens. Guided by the wisdom of our ancestors, we ask: what are they trying to tell us?
How do they continue to move through us, protect us, and illuminate our paths, in a world that often disconnects us from our roots?

Through this journey, we draw inspiration from indigenous African spiritual traditions and the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé — a practice deeply rooted in ancestral reverence, rhythm, ceremony, and the presence of the Orishas. Percussion becomes language. Drum rhythms become memory.

Dance becomes ritual. Celebration becomes survival.