A Night in Rio: Brazilian Carnaval in Charlotte

On Thursday, the Latin American Coalition put on A Night in Rio: the Brazilian Carnival Experience, an event I've been working on with Tony for the past few months. We weren't sure what to expect, since an event like this had not been tried before in Charlotte. But tons of people showed up, maybe 700 or 800 people. We envisioned the show as a way to bring the gap between the Latino and Brazilian community in Charlotte; also it was a way to showcase some of the great Brazilian immigrant musicians and dancers here. Brazil is sort of like the stepchild of Latin America, there are both similarities and differences in the cultures of Brazil and the rest of Latin America, in language, music, political history, etc. I am debating whether to include Brazilian music as part of an ethnography of the Latin music scene in Charlotte.
Wherever you position yourself in this debate, A Night in Rio showed that Brazilians have arrived in Charlotte BIG TIME!
Here are some pictures of SoulBrazil, Paulo & Ezio, and Movimentos de Samba.