Dr. Marta Moreno Vega discovers a letter from Arturo Schomburg asking his friend Nicolás Guillen to welcome Langston Hughes to Cuba. Dr. Vega envisions an organization exploring the vibrant cultures and points of connections of the African Diaspora across the Caribbean.

founded by Dr. Moreno Vega as an affiliate program of the Phelps Stokes Fund, an organization connecting and supporting emerging leaders in American Indian and African communities. Soon after, VARRCRC becomes the Caribbean Cultural Center (CCC) and Laura Moreno is hired as the organization’s Assistant Director serving until her retirement in 2008.

CCC becomes one of the first institutions in New York City to showcase African Diaspora artists on important stages across the city, from Carnegie Hall, to Lincoln Center, to Town Hall and the Apollo Theater. Performers included Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Taylor, and Celia Cruz, amongst others.

Responding to its community’s desire for a deeper understanding of African spirituality in the Diaspora, CCCADI increases programming around the subject. Among the first programs are a Batá Drums concert with master Cuban percussionist Julito Collazo, and the exhibition Santeria and Vodun: African Religion in the Caribbean, which attracts audiences from the tri-state area who line up around the block in anticipation to view it.

CARIBE Magazine is published and served as a resource for local community members that highlighted artists, scholars, traditional and community leaders of the African diaspora. CARIBE Magazine provided a much needed platform for highlighting under-represented scholars, experts and artists absent from mainstream media and academia.

(September/October 1979). This 2-day festival mirrored the famed international CARIFESTA, spotlighting the historical, artistic, and cultural contributions of all people of African descent. As a result, CCCADI broadens its vision beyond the Caribbean to amplify the connections amongst all African descendants globally. The Expressions Festival was presented at major venues throughout NYC including Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Aaron Davis Hall and featured Rex Nettleford & the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Mongo Santamaria y Su Grupo, Jazz des Jeunes & Miriam Dorisme, Marie Brooks Pan Caribbean Dance Theater, Carib Steel and Mask Band, Theater, Tito Puente, Ismael Miranda, Pello El Afrokan direct from Cuba, amongst others.

CCC transforms into the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). The 80s marked an era of great change for the Caribbean Cultural Center made evident by the addition of African Diaspora Institute to its name, to communicate the international scope and world view of the organization’s work.

Over the course of 10 years, the bi-annual conference entitled, Cultural Diversity Based on Cultural Grounding organized by CCCADI, brought together leaders and community organizers representing international non-governmental and not for profit organizations, to address the shared experiences of systemic racism, oppression and inequity in funding for African descendants communities wherever we are present.

Mario Bauzá, considered by many as the father of Latin Jazz and musical director of the famous Machito and his Afro-Cuban Orchestra, is honored as part of CCCADI’s Lincoln Center Out of Doors event. The concert featured musical greats Billy Taylor, Bobby Capo, Graciela, Machito, Jorge Dalto, Chocolate Armenteros and Mario Rivera and was a follow up to CCCADI’s 1979 tribute at Alice Tully Hall which reignited Bauza’s career.

CCCADI produces the first Orisa Tradition World Conference in Nigeria, which convened global academics, spiritual leaders and practitioners of Yoruba sacred religious traditions, providing a public forum for presenting these often demonized and misunderstood traditions accurately and respectfully. This was followed by conferences in 1983 in Brazil and later in New York City in 1986.

After many years in hiatus, The Young Lords Party Exhibition reunites the founding members of this important Puerto Rican social justice organization. This is the first exhibition to feature the photography of Hiram Maristany, the Young Lords official photographer.

CCCADI identifies and fills a need in New York City for a carnival celebration that reflects the diversity of carnival traditions throughout the African Diaspora. It produces its first carnival parade uniting groups from Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti and many more. CCCADI’s Carnival Parade becomes an annual event that culminates with a massive celebratory concert in Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.

On June 2nd, CCCADI presented the 1st Annual Baile del Traje Blanco/Dance of the White Dress that continues to be a much anticipated and popular signature event for CCCADI. The dance celebrates the coming of spring and a new harvest, making the audience active participants in the communion between musicians and dancers integral to the African diaspora culture.

In this tribute, the first of its kind to celebrate and recognize Women of Color who are living legends, the organization honors Katherine Dunham, Antonia Pantoja and Susan Taylor at Hunter College.

CCCADI becomes the first presenter of Hip Hop music and culture at Lincoln Center with the Uprise & Shine: Stay in School Rallies featuring Queen Latifah, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest and MC Lyte. This successful, standing room only event educated and opened the eyes of the Lincoln Center programming team on how to best serve our city’s diverse audiences. It also cemented the Center’s long standing partnership with Lincoln Center that continues to this very day.

CCCADI presents Celia Cruz in performance for the first time in a Black church in Harlem at Abyssinian Baptist Church on October 21, accompanied by the church choir.

CCCADI initiates the Network of Cultural Centers of Color, a touring component designed to promote, share and present multi-disciplinary programs produced by national organizations of color. The first major tour was Sacred Drums, a concert honoring the universality of the drum and drumming traditions bringing together master percussionists from Indigenous, African, Asian and Latino communities featuring famed percussionists Baba Olatunji, Seiichi Tanaka, Tito Puente, Max Roach, Patato Valdez and Benito Concha under the musical direction of Mario Bauza.

CCCADI formalizes its Arts In Ed program and curriculum for NYC public and independent Black schools. CCCADI begins its decades long work of presenting to NYC public school students, mainly students of color, the often-ignored and overlooked contributions of African descendants to the history of the world.

CCCADI presents one of the most memorable programs in its history--A Tribute to Katherine Dunham, mother of the Dunham dance technique and founder of the first major Black modern dance company in the United States. Held at Town Hall, performers and special guests included Danny Glover, Tito Puente, Puntilla Rios, Eartha Kitt, Cleo Parker Robinson, Max Roach, Louinis, Roots of Brazil, Marie Brooks Pan Caribbean Dance Theater, Philadanco and Julie Belafonte.

CCCADI in partnership with the Apollo Theater present Ladysmith Black Mambazo directly from South Africa in their first US solo performance followed by a concert by LOS VAN VAN in their first US appearance amidst the Cuban Embargo at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. These concerts followed in CCCADI’s tradition of paving the way for internationally recognized African Diaspora artists to perform in the United States.

In an unprecedented partnership with two major museums, The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, CCCADI presents a groundbreaking exhibition, Transforming the Crown: African, Asian, and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996. The exhibition documents the work of artists of African, Asian and Caribbean descent in the United Kingdom who have transformed the art establishment in Britain. It boldly explores issues of race, gender, sexuality, and transnationalism, as well as identity and diaspora politics. Artists in the exhibition include Faisal Abdu’Allah, Said Adrus, Ajamu, Henrietta Atooma Alele, Hassan Aliyu, Marcia Bennett, Zarina Bhimji, Sutapa Biswas, Sylbert Bolton, Sonia Boyce, Winston Branch, Vanley Burke, Roshini Kempadoo, amongst other.

CCCADI brings together 10 arts organizations of color to found the Cultural Equity Group to advocate for and address the inequitable funding patterns of New York City and State. This work continues to shape CCCADI’s advocacy work around dismantling the systemic racism and inequitable funding patterns to communities color. The success of this work has impacted the way that the city has responded to these issues resulting in program support through initiatives like the Cultural Immigration Initiative, National Stabilization Fund, and Coalition of Theaters of Color grant programs and the New York City Cultural Plan.

Production and tour for the Center’s first film documentary When the Spirits Dance Mambo filmed in Cuba, exploring the journey of the Orisha sacred traditions from Africa, to Cuba and its connection to the Mambo musical and dance explosion in the United States in the 50s explaining, identifying and connecting the sacred traditional Afro-Cuban roots of contemporary popular Latin music

In collaboration with several non-governmental organizations from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States of America, CCCADI launches the Global Afro Latino and Caribbean Initiative (GALCI). GALCI sets out to shape public policy to combat the persistent inequities that marginalize and negatively impact the lives of African descendants in the Americas. Changes are seen in policy and access to government positions for African descendants in Honduras, Belize, Venezuela and Uruguay .

Presented the 1st Annual Latin & Tropical Music Collectors’ Festival in the United States that continued for 10 years. This festival was based on the popular collectors fairs presented throughout the Caribbean and Latin America that highlight the musical contributions and legends of Latin music, dance and film. This event celebrated the collector as a “living museum” responsible for protecting vinyl albums, posters, photos, memorabilia, kept and found in our homes.

CCCADI explores the definition and inclusion of all African descendants, challenging traditional conceptions of Blackness and/or who can use it. CCCADI coins terms and popularizes phrases like Afro Latino, Afro Caribbean, cultural diversity, cultural pluralism, and Afro-Centricity to name a few.

CCCADI hosts its final exhibition at the West 58th Street brownstone.

CCCADI partners with Los Hermanos Fraternos de Loiza to present the 40th Annual Festival de Santiago de Loiza del Barrio, breathing new life into one of the oldest celebrations of the African roots of the Latino immigrant communities settled in New York City. CCCADI establishes itself as a leader in the East Harlem community.

After successfully completing a 10 year Capital Campaign that raised $9.3M, and wanting to be closer to the community they serve, CCCADI relocates to a newly renovated historic firehouse on East 125th Street in El Barrio.

This same year CCCADI launches a groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) project “Mi Querido Barrio” (My Beloved Community) and The Apps Academy that engage local artists and youth in digitally landmarking East Harlem’s rich history and cultural legacy. Combining technology and culture has become one of CCCADI’s signature features.

Melody’s long tenure at the organization began in 1984. As a leader in arts administration and cultural activism, she brings a vision for the organization that honors and builds off of its strong legacy.

In response to the critical situation the pandemic created for artists who were left without work and space to create or present, DEAR was designed to give participating artists and arts practitioners of African descent the opportunity to connect, reflect, and strategize in a community of peers committed to growth and adaptation.