Marking its third year, Providence’s signature cultural celebration showcases the diversity and vibrancy of the Creative Capital through art installations, live music and dance, food, and much, much more…

Raising the dance floor up to the sky! While artists and musicians transformed Kennedy Plaza into a world-class festival, BANDALOOP transformed the sky above it into an awe-inspiring aerial performance incorporating spoken word and vocals by local collaborators including poet Christopher Johnson.

Christopher’s performance history with FirstWorks dates back to its first street festival in 2004. At this year’s festival he will assemble talent from across the Creative Capital to collaborate with aerial dance troupe BANDALOOP on #PVDPublicCanvas, a community-driven performance.

After a show-stopping collaboration with local student musicians at last year’s PVDFest, the Haitian born, Harlem-based composer/violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (aka DBR) returns for a massive musical spectacle in the shadow of the West Side’s iconic Cranston Street Armory.

If Mexican folk music and pounding Afro-Caribbean rhythms met on the streets of East Los Angeles, what would happen? The answer is Las Cafeteras, one of the hottest young bands in alternative Latin music.

This young jazz master from Trinidad defies easy categorization – a student of pan-Caribbean music, as fluent in the horn riffs of New Orleans brass as he is the Spanish rhythms of the islands.

Two is better than one when Rhode Island’s own Doppelgänger Dance Collective (DDC) takes the stage. Co-founding dancers Shura Baryshnikov and Danielle Davidson were drawn together to foster the creation and performance of original, contemporary choreographic work for duet.

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Cranston St. Armory: Animated by Art uses the arts as a focal point to engage community stakeholders around envisioning a bright future and multiple creative uses for this historic site, built in 1907 in the heart of Providence’s West End neighborhood.

One of Honduras’ most gifted performers, Aurelio is a singer-songwriter known for his powerful and evocative voice, as well as a brilliant guitarist and percussionist.

Bettye LaVette is a true legend of blues and soul with a career spanning more than 50 years – but it’s only within the last decade that she has truly earned recognition as one of America’s finest vocal talents. Huffington Post dubbed her “the High Priestess of R&B.”

Montreal’s Betty Bonafassi is a true musical traveler, using her deep, booming voice to explore everything from jazz to electronic to American roots music. Her latest album, “Lomax”, revisits the turn-of-the-century slave songs recorded by famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. Mixing modern electronics with early Delta roots and her signature contralto vocals, “Lomax” is Betty’s tour de force.

Rhode Island’s favorite hometown rapper joins forces with our own master of rhythm for a very special PVDFest performance. Chachi Carvalho and Sidy Maiga are the International Rebels. Combining Chachi’s poignant lyricism and positive hip-hop vibes with Sidy’s polyrhythms and propulsive energy, this special collaboration is sure to get the party started.

Providence’s favorite puppets from another planet will touch down at PVDFest for an extraterrestrial public spectacle and space-funk dance party!

What do you get when you combine sultry Cuban music with propulsive funk beats? PALO!, a Miami-based band that is reinventing the classic Cuban sound for the next generation.

This young jazz master from Trinidad defies easy categorization – a student of pan-Caribbean music, as fluent in the horn riffs of New Orleans brass as he is the Spanish rhythms of the islands. Etienne Charles will discuss the many influences in his life and education that have helped shape his career.
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An open band of brass, reeds and drums, there are over 30 musicians and dancers in the ERB family. Their musical influences range from New Orleans jazz to Middle Eastern klezmer, Spanish revolutionary songs to funk, rhythm & blues.

The bayou meets the bay when Magnolia takes the stage.

Mike Boston is a rapper-entrepreneur-activist who has gained local and national attention as the founder of Mobile Stü, a mobile studio he takes into tough urban areas to give inner-city kids a voice—and to collaborate musically with police officers.