A Musical History of Puerto Rican Resistance from Bomba to Bad BunnyMaster ClassIn-Person
Thursday, Dec 10, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
New York Historical Society
Our partner, NY Historical Society, will be hosting this event.
Drawing inspiration from the New-York Historical Society’s "You Should Be Dancing" exhibit, which frames the dance floor as a vital sanctuary for community and political expression, this course examines the music of Bad Bunny as a point of departure for understanding how aesthetics, history, and politics intersect. We will develop skills as close listeners to decode a musical lineage that stretches from 19th-century traditions to the modern global stage, analyzing Puerto Rican music as the persistent sound of migration. By tracing the evolution of bomba, plena, salsa, and reggaetón, we explore how these genres moved between the archipelago and the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York City. We will also analyze how these rhythms respond to the realities of a colonial past and present, positioning Latinx music and dance not just as leisure, but as a powerful mechanism of resistance and a rhythmic map of displacement.
This class will be offered in English.
HISTORY, SPANISH, SOCIAL STUDIES, MUSIC, LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
3 credits for school members
CTLE credit available
Limited to 20 teachers
Albert Laguna
Albert Sergio Laguna is an Associate Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration and American Studies at Yale University, recognized as a leading scholar in transnational Latinx literatures, popular culture, humor theory, and performance studies. He is the author of Diversión: Play and Popular Culture in Cuban America (2017), which won the 2018 Robert K. Martin Prize for Best Book from the Canadian American Studies Association and the 2018 Peter C. Rollins Book Prize. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN.com. Laguna’s teaching and research at Yale, such as his widely featured course utilizing the music of Bad Bunny to explore Puerto Rican history and aesthetics, have established him as a prominent figure in American and Latinx studies.