Pa'Lante: Alynda Mariposa Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff
Episode 31
Alynda Mariposa Segarra is the Nuyorican songwriter, activist and visionary behind Hurray for the Riff Raff.
Alynda Mariposa Segarra is the Nuyorican songwriter, activist and visionary behind Hurray for the Riff Raff. Alynda was born in the Bronx and has been writing and singing since she was a child. Inspired early on by classic musicals, punk, and beatnik poetry, she was always drawn to the artists and radicals of the world. She explored the underground of New York City and was educated in squatting, train riding, and radical politics at a young age. At age 17 she left home and traveled the U.S. by freight, eventually landing in New Orleans where she helped form a hobo band of 7 called The Dead Man Street Orchestra in which she played washboard and sang. At age 19 she began to record and write her own songs under the moniker Hurray for the Riff Raff, with the intention of using her knowledge of folk music to write songs from her own unique queer latinx feminist perspective. Now at age 32, Alynda has recorded 9 albums and has traveled the world playing her songs.
She released the critically acclaimed album "The Navigator" in 2017 which featured her anthemic love letter to the Puerto Rican diaspora: "Pa'lante".
Alynda has spent 2019 working on new music, healing and growing. She is inspired by plant life, the ancestors and the global community of protest music.
Website: http://www.hurrayfortheriffraff.com/