LADAMA, October 24 through 27

PASS Performance: Thursday, October 27, 6 p.m.

The Outing Club, 2109 North Brady Street, Davenport IA

Abbreviated Performances: Monday, October 24, through Thursday, October 25

Various Area Locations

Lauded by Roots World as a group dedicated to “vaunting empowerment and liberation on their own terms,” the Latin alternative band LADAMA will, from October 24 through 27, deliver five public performances as Quad City Arts Visiting Artists, their music fusing sounds from South America and the Caribbean with soul, R&B, and pop.

Composed of musicians and activists Lara Klaus, Daniela Serna, Maria "Mafer Bandola" González Olivo and Sara Lucas, the talents of LADAMA are natives of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States, respectively, and are frequently joined on tour with their collaborator Pat Swoboda, an American bassist. In addition to public performances, LADAMA holds educational workshops in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, where they hope to provide a foundation for participants to, as they state, "use music as a basic form of personal expression to address issues pertinent to them." In addition to performing and offering workshops at venues and festivals around the world, the quartet seeks to empower primarily women and youth (though everyone is welcome at their events) through interactive musical experiences.

LADAMA formed in 2014 while touring the West Coast as part of the OneBeat Program, and their self-titled debut album was released in September of 2017 via Six Degrees Records, eventually reaching number one on both iTunes and Amazon's Latin Music Charts the following January. The album contains mostly new songs written and performed by the band members, and its songs embrace a variety of Latin American musical genres. Their second album Oye Mujer (Hey Woman) was released in 2020, and over the years, LADAMA has performed at TED, the Skoll World Forum, the 2018 Monterey Jazz Festival, and on ESPN’s Hispanic heritage special The Latino Experience, which aired in 2017. The musicians were also featured on NPR's All Things Considered in 2018, with the show's host praising their "irresistible spirit and universal appeal."

During their area tenure as Quad City Arts Visiting Artists, the musicians of LADAMA will deliver five public performances: at Black Hawk College (6600 34th Avenue, Moline IL) on October 24 at 10:30 a.m.; at the DeWitt Community Library (917 Fifth Avenue, DeWitt IA) on October 25 at 6 p.m.; at Clinton Community College (1000 Lincoln Boulevard, Clinton IA) on October 26 at 6 p.m.; at the Muscatine Art Center (1314 Mulberry Avenue, Muscatine IA) on October 27 at 3 p.m.; and, as an event in Quad City Arts' PASS Concert series, at the Outing Club (2109 North Brady Street, Davenport IA) on October 27 at 7 p.m. Admission is $50 for the PASS performance and free for the four abbreviated performances held beforehand.

For more information on LADAMA and the Visiting Artists Series, call (309)793-1213 and visit QuadCityArts.com.