Mai-Elka Prado Gil

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Mai-Elka Prado Gil (Panamá, 1986) is the founder of the Afro-Latino Festival of New York. She has directed an  annual  multi-day music festival and conference celebrating the contributions of people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. She is in charge of overseeing a  $250,000 project budget; all industry and marketing materials (printed and online).  She has hired and trained 75-member staff/volunteer team; Managed logistics including curation/programming, venue selection, PR communications, vendor’s marketplace, social media engagement, brand development and ticketing. 

She also is the  liaise with sponsorship clients and many nonprofit organizations. As an experienced live event producer who is renowned by the conceptualization, production and execution  of large concerts, conferences and film festivals; her work is pillar to the Afro-Latino community. As cultural organizer, her work is focused on developing cultural platforms that unite multicultural audiences. She recently graduated with a B.A in Psychology from Brooklyn College and is looking forward to be a Phd candidate at Baruch. 

Additionally, Mrs. Prado is a singer-songwriter. She has done many music collaboration such as vocal tracks for acclaimed Afro- Colombian artists Petrona Martinez, Carlos Vives, Toto La Momposina, Magin Diaz and Bomba Estereo. As an artist, her work has been focused on the exposure of Afrodescendant music sounds  from Latin America in the city of New York.