Leyendas: ¡KUVOle! featuring Ritmo Cascabel

Join us at MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater for a night of music, dance, and storytelling as the evening celebrates Latin America’s traditional and time-honored Leyendas. Performances by Manuel Aragon & Alan Domínguez, Bobby LeFebre & Verena, ArtistiCO, and D.L. Cordero with a special presentation of KUVOle! featuring Ritmo Cascabel. Presented by KUVO JAZZ, the Mexican Cultural Center, and MCA Denver.

Free parking is available at North High School.

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About Our Partners & Performers

KUVOle! is a live music event series presented by KUVO JAZZ, that seeks to capture the nostalgia of regional Latin music while highlighting and amplifying emerging artists in non-traditional spaces. Featuring influences of cultural significance, from music, food, and places to pay homage to the roots of Southwest Latin music from KUVO’s extensive Latin programming.

Founded in 1992, the Mexican Cultural Center is a non-profit 501c3 organization that works in partnership with cultural, educational, and other institutions to promote and maintain the richness of Mexican culture in the State of Colorado. The Mexican Cultural Center is dedicated to increasing awareness of Mexico’s unique arts, customs, traditions and destinations among the audiences of the United States of America. The Mexican Cultural Center works in partnership with art and cultural institutions to promote and maintain the richness of Mexican culture in Colorado. The Center is dedicated to increasing awareness of Mexico’s splendid traditions of travel, cuisine, art, music, and handcrafts among the audiences of the United States.

A Chicanx border crosser since birth, Alan Domínguez is a filmmaker who addresses issues such as hate crimes, police corruption, wrongful incarceration, and the immigrant experience. Denver-based with Nuevo Mexicano roots, Alan’s documentaries and narrative films have been screened and distributed in three different continents and in three different languages all of which have highlighted the unique fabric and landscapes of the Southwest USA. His work has been broadcast on Hulu, World Channel, Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado Public Television, Third World Newsreel, and Latino Rebels. Additionally, Alan’s films have been screened at the Festival Internacional de Cine en Morelia, New York Latino Film Festival, XicanIndie Film Festival, among others. Alan’s films have received support from American Masters, Firelight Media, PBS, Imagine2020, Arts in Society, National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, World Channel, the Western Conservation Trust, the University of Michigan, and the Colorado Historical Society. He is a Latino Media Market Fellow, National Association for Latino Independent Producers Fellow, Latino Leadership Institute Fellow, and Doing your Doc Fellow.

ArtistiCO strives to build community by providing a well-rounded dance academy serving children and youth; providing educational outreach and sharing the art of dance through world-class dance performances. We strongly believe in fostering, preserving, and advancing a culture of equity to ensure an inclusive atmosphere both onstage and behind the scenes. ArtistiCO is committed to bringing the art of dance to educational institutions, unlimited stages, and to the hearts of our community. Within two years, ArtistiCO has evolved from its virtual platform to establishing two dance academy locations, a professional dance company & is in the process of purchasing a home dance studio. We embrace various dance techniques including Mexican folk dance, classical and contemporary ballet. The organization offers a safe and inclusive space for artists from all backgrounds to showcase their talent, passion, and artistic experience with people from all over the world. By promoting Latinx culture and history through dance, ArtistiCO serves as a bridge between nations, connecting people locally, nationally, and internationally.

Bobby LeFebre is an award-winning writer, performer, and cultural worker fusing a non-traditional multi-hyphenated professional identity to imagine new realities, empower communities, advance arts and culture, and serve as an agent of provocation, transformation, equity, and social change. In 2019, LeFebre was named Colorado’s 8th Poet Laureate, making him the youngest and first person of color to be appointed to the position in its 100-year history. LeFebre was named a National Catalyst for Change Fellow in 2020 and an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow in 2021. LeFebre holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Metropolitan University of Denver and a master’s degree in Art, Literature, and Culture from the University of Denver.

D.L. Cordero is a published science fiction and fantasy author, occasional poet, and horror dabbler living and working in Denver, Colorado. As a nonbinary, queer, Afro-Latinx, and Taíno person (from Boriken, a.k.a. Puerto Rico), they aim to write intriguing stories that center characters from marginalized communities, without making identity the crux of the story. They reside with their kick-ass wife, Sophia, their blind pit bull Ayo, and their shy yellow lab, Rei. D.L. identifies as nonbinary, which means they do not solely identify as a man or woman. D.L. uses the singular ‘they’ and respectfully requests you do the same when referencing them.

Manuel Aragon is a Latinx writer, director, and filmmaker from Denver, CO. He is currently working on a short story collection, Norteñas. Norteñas is a collection of speculative fiction short stories centered in the Northside, a Mexican and Mexican- American centered part of Denver, and the people, ghosts, and demons that live there. His work has appeared in ANMLY. His short story, "A Violent Noise," was nominated for the 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. He is a 2021 Periplus Collective Fellow, a 2021 NYFA IAP Mentor, and a 2023 Tin House Residency winner. He is also a Colorado Book Award finalist as editor of the anthology, All The Lives We Ever Lived: Vol 2. He is a graduate of NYU’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television. His film work - writing and directing - has been featured on MTV, Pitchfork, and Stereogum. He most recently won the CineLatino Pitch Latino Award for Emerging Filmmakers with my web series, Welcome to the Northside, a comedic take on gentrification and Latino displacement in North Denver.

“So, uh, what ARE you?” is probably the most frequently asked question of Colorado native La Molly (Molly Gallegos). Like many Latinx people, La Molly has been on a search for what, or rather who, she is her whole life. Having grown up rather rootless, La Molly turned to music and thus was born the podcast “Super Sonido Show” (and now the radio show “Super Sonido”), to explore a similar identity quest in music like digital cumbia, electronic folklore, and tropical punk. Born and raised in Boulder, La Molly has lived in Colorado most of her life. She has been in Denver since 2008. La Molly received her Bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University in Ethnic Studies and her Master’s degree from CU Denver in Social Sciences and Women and Gender Studies. When her head isn’t buried in headphones you can find her painting, drinking coffee, and reading a book or at the park playing hide and seek with her son Joaquin.

Ritmo Cascabel is a bloody ripper cumbiadelica band hailing from Denver. These legends have created a wicked blend of cumbia, western, and rock and roll. They formed in early 2020 and have been smashing it ever since. Their self-titled, debut album was recorded in CDMX and comes out in Fall 2023. It is a chock-a-block full of tracks that'll have you crook if you're not on your feet.

Verena is a Mexican singer/songwriter, born in Mexico City, and based in Denver, CO. With her music, she seeks to explore and communicate raw, genuine, and vulnerable emotions while incorporating her influences within contemporary pop and Latin American music. She strives to speak up about her experiences as a woman, a POC, a daughter, a friend, a partner, and a human. The genre of her musical project is mainly Contemporary Pop / R&B / Neo-Soul.

Host or Publisher Museum of Contemporary Art Denver