Puerto Rican vocalist Taína Asili [tahy-ee-nah ah-see-lee] carries on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. Taina hails from Philadelphia, PA and Albany, NY where she has worked as a musician, poet, educator and community organizer for over 15 years. She has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Ursula Rucker, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Pamela Means, Paula Cole, and Tyrone Hill of The Sun Ra Arkestra. Taína was a winner of the 2005 Transformation Award given by the Leeway Foundation each year to a select few of women artists who profoundly use their work towards social change. She has performed from Montreal to San Francisco and from Mexico to Spain capturing the hearts of her listeners.
In 2009, Taína Asili and her husband Gaetano Vaccaro, core members of Taína Asili y la Banda Rebelde, traveled to Spain to study flamenco music at its source, with the Gitano people. The classical guitar-vocal duo returned with a passionate hybrid style incorporating the flamenco tradition with their personal Puerto Rican and Sicilian heritages.
Taína is dedicated to using her art as a tool for personal and social transformation. Her art is not only political, but based in the concrete organizing she is in involved in, working in political prisoner liberation, prisoner rights, indigenous rights, environmental justice, and holistic health movements for over a decade. However, Taína’s main revolutionary and artistic work involves raising her children… her best artistic inspiration.