Writer, Composer, Musician, Producer, bandleader Considered a 21st century Renaissance woman, Aurora Flores is a musician, writer, producer/publicist and activist. A musician by training, she was the first Latina editor of Latin New York Magazine in 1974 later becoming the first female music correspondent for Billboard Magazine while attending Columbia University’s Journalism School on scholarship. Aurora Flores broke into mainstream journalism writing and reporting news for television, radio and print before founding and running Aurora Communications Inc. a multicultural public relations firm in 1988. In 2003, Aurora founded and became the bandleader of her own Latin music septet, Zon del Barrio featuring original compositions she writes while updating the format of Latin music to a modern instrumentation adding elements of popular music genres within the context of Afro-Boricua folklore and Afro-Cuban salsa. As a cultural consultant for Nickelodeon, she composed bilingual songs for the hit children’s show, “Dora the Explorer.” Aurora is a lecturer on Latin music invited to the Afro-Caribbean Festival in Vera Cruz, Mexico where she shared a panel with Cuba’s foremost ethnomusicologist, Helio Orovio. She has traveled to the Salsa Festival in Toulouse, France performing with her band and has produced sold out concerts. With thousands of articles to her name, Aurora Flores continues to write for various mainstream newspapers and magazines. She recently edited and wrote the foreword for Mary Kent’s book ¡Salsa Talks! A Musical Heritage Uncovered. She is the recipient of numerous awards and is included in the national Who’s Who in Hispanic America. She can be seen performing and speaking on the history of the music over the recent “mambo-mentary” aired over BET JAZZ called Pasos Latinos; as a music historian over the BRAVO documentary, “Palladium, When Mambo was King;” in the Smithsonian Institute’s traveling exhibit and accompanying film, “Latin jazz, La Combinación Perfecta;” and in the Edward James Olmos docudrama, “Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.” where she can be seen singing and dancing alongside the late Tito Puente who is playing a composition she co-wrote. Visit her website at: zondelbarrio.com Check out our interview over NBC's Weekend Today Show: Here is a video I put together on Domestic Violence. Let us know what you think: Ruben Blades was leading the Panamanian contingency when he gave us a holla. We replied w/our rendition of "La Murga de Panama." Check it out here: ¡Wepa, wepa, wepa! Our Christmas Show w/ Yomo Toro & Danza Fiesta:

Aurorazdb http://twitgoo.com/4iade

Music, books, films, theater, history, dance and art.

Good music.

Too many to pick a favorite

Not so much, but I do like Two and a Half Men and the History Channel.

Maya Angelou's last memoirs: Heart of a Woman.

Reason has no gender. It is the same function in women as in men. Eugenio Maria de Hostos