T his summer, the Bronx-based artist Gomany “Gogo” Norales, 23, and his band of musicians made their way onto a small stage in Greeley Square Park, just before sunset. For the next hour, they played their specific brand of jazz, funk, and reggae mixed with Garifuna sounds. Around them, people strolling through Herald Square stopped to watch — all while a seated crowd burst into dance and applause.
Norales was looking at the audience and paying attention to one special detail: “It was the most Garifuna people I’ve seen at one of my shows,” he says.
Norales has made it his mission to represent his culture through his music. He’s from Honduras and grew up Garifuna, a Black ethnic group found primarily in Central America. According to most historians, Garifuna communities developed on St. Vincent, where British colonizers later forced the mix of Indigenous and African-descended people to flee from the island in the 1700s. Eventually, they settled along the coasts of countries like Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua. Garifuna people have their own language and culture, rooted in a mix of West African, Arawak, and Indigenous influences. And while Garifuna communities are underrepresented in Latin America, artists like Norales are doing everything they can to maintain their traditions and bring them to the masses.
Norales grew up understanding the depth of Garifuna music: His father is a percussionist and singer who toured with the late Honduran singer-songwriter Aurelio Martinez and other major Garifuna figures. “Garifuna music is storytelling music,” Norales says. “It’s an anthem about our survival, about our journey, and of what we went through, and what we’re still going through.” He didn’t pursue music until after high school, but has carved out his own lane on his musical releases, including on the recent EP, Simaroni, by blending Garifuna styles and lyrics with modern genres.
That’s an approach Kaysy Gotay, 35, who goes by Wavy Fox, has also embraced. She’s a New York City-based DJ and multidisciplinary artist who spins at some of the most prestigious institutions in the city: the Guggenheim, the Met, the Brooklyn Museum, to name a few. Her sets include mashups of Top 40 hits, hip-hop, and dancehall with punta, a rhythmic Garifuna genre, and paranda, a more spiritual and melodic style. Her Instagram is full of videos diving into lessons about Garifuna history and culture.
Gotay’s family is from Guatemala. Her uncles are leaders in the Garifuna community back home, and they taught her the value of their heritage from an early age. “I think people are proud that I didn’t forget,” she says. “Every day, you feel forgotten: We’re not recognized in the Latin community like that, or the Caribbean community, so we have to build our voices up and we have to tell our story.”
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When Martinez, who was widely considered an ambassador and pioneer of Garifuna music, died in March 2025, tribute concerts and music memorials abounded. A lot of these events brought several Garifuna musicians together and became a reminder of how it was up to them to follow the example of previous generations. “[Aurelio] chose to continue with Garifuna music and to perform Garifuna music globally, so [his legacy is] just to be proud of who you are and your culture is going to get you very far,” Norales says.
For Gotay, it’s about taking the helm from Garifuna forefathers. “My uncles, they’re elders. I’m in my thirties. Now, it’s time for me to start doing what I need to do for my bloodline and for our lineage to continue.” She has a young daughter who, she says, she plays Garifuna music for constantly. More broadly, Gotay is making sure her roots are seen, heard, and understood: “I’m making it my mission that when someone says they’re Garifuna, no one is like ‘What’s that?’”