Join us tonight for a very special evening of Diasporican Sonic Journeys, a musical medicina of a collaboration between Boricua musical bruja Maria Jose Montijo and Boricua cellist and loop manipulator Shanti Laita.

Singer-songwriter María José Montijo draws inspiration from over 20 years of experience as a healer –including tai-chi and qi-gong practice, daoist cosmology, meditation, traditional medicine practitioner and acupuncturist. Her music is rooted in a continuous process of discovery and care, where trauma is transformed into art. A self-described “weird, cosmic, and queer islander” from Puerto Rico, Majo Montijo’s musical journey began as a student of classical vocal performance in Puerto Rico’s prestigious Conservatory of Music. After a series of health issues derailed her music studies, Majo began treatment for Hashimoto’s disease in 2009, including daily swims at San Juan’s El Escambrón beach. It was there on one serendipitous day that Majo was approached by the lifeguard on duty ––to her surprise, her friend Constanza, a violinist she’d met during her conservatory days. While catching up, Majo confessed to her friend she had begun making up songs in the shower, and the very next day Constanza had gifted Majo her first harp (one she had bought on eBay, curiously enough, from Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón, also a member of the influential indie pop group Balún).

Shanti Lalita is a cellist, composer, writer and producer that focuses her work on the creation of soundscapes, translating poetry into music and vice-versa. Narrative is key for the format in which she presents sound art, using a musical approach to voice meditations on personal matters, social and political ideas, and other more mystical aspects of life. https://shantilalita.bandcamp.com/track/barrunto

That chance encounter led to Majo’s first collection of songs, the self-released Estrellas EP (2014). Currently based in Oakland, California, María José Montijo’s forthcoming album Esotérica Tropical is due out in 2023.