Join the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Smithsonian Channel and the Embassy of Colombia for a free screening of The Accordion Kings, a new documentary film about vallenato, the soulful music of Colombia's Caribbean coast. Following a brief discussion of the film, José Vásquez, Pangue Maestre, Ivo Díaz, and Daniel Castilla will perform a special concert of música vallenata featured in the film and on the new recording ¡Ayombe!:The Heart of Colombia's Música Vallenata, available now from Smithsonian Folkways. The event will begin at 6pm on Friday, June 6th, at the Baird Auditorium in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Click here for more information.

In addition, June's edition of Smithsonian Magazine features a profile of vallenato, video clips from The Accordion Kings, and an audio stream of "Matilde Lina", one of the songs from ¡Ayombe!:The Heart of Colombia's Música Vallenata. Click here for the profile and video clips, and click here for the audio stream of "Matilde Lina".