Kadencia, a play on the word “cadence” in Spanish, is an 11-member band led by father-son duo Maurice Sanabria-Ortiz and Maurice “Tito” Sanabria, 43.

Mr. Sanabria-Ortiz, 63, is the lead singer, songwriter and director for the band which he founded in 2007 in the Sanabria family’s hometown of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Mr. Sanabria said.

“Kadencia, to us, is a musical term but it’s also used to refer to dancing. Dancing has its own cadence, its own movement.” Mr. Sanabria said. “We’re all about making people move, making people groove, enjoy themselves and learn something in the process.”

The Richmond-based band is among the performers on Friday and Saturday during a free two-day celebration sponsored by The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities. Friday’s program, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., will feature documentary screenings, live music and more to highlight Virginia’s evolving folklife heritage as part of the library’s yearlong 200th anniversary celebration, according to organizers.

Kadencia, which performs Saturday during the event’s noon to 4 p.m. window, plays bomba and Mayagüez-style plena music to promote and preserve Afro-Puerto Rican music. Bomba and plena are both percussion-heavy rhythms with Afro-Puerto Rican roots and the band mixes this with Afro-Cuban rhythms to create a mostly original catalog with topics predominantly discussing Puerto Rican history, society and culture, according to a press kit for Kadencia.

The band also has smaller ensemble options of four and six members that play traditional percussive plena and bomba music.

Mr. Sanabria-Ortiz has been involved in music since a teen, but began with salsa, Mr. Sanabria said. Later in life, Mr. Sanabria-Ortiz

was approached by friends who wanted to play plena and needed help forming a group. He realized his ability to write plena and bomba music after trying it with his friends and he founded Kadencia in Puerto Rico, Mr. Sanabria said.

The group released its debut album, “La Voz del Barrio” (The Voice of the Neighborhood) in 2009 and played for five years until the father and son moved to Virginia. Kadencia had a “rebirth” in August 2018 when they decided to bring the band back, this time based in Richmond. Their next album, “En Otro Barrio” (In Another Neighborhood), was recorded in Oregon Hill and released in 2022. It was named as one of the top 20 albums by Puerto Rican albums by Puerto Rico’s Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular (National Foundation for Popular Culture), Mr. Sanabria said.

“Since day one, the Richmond community has been incredibly supportive,” he added.

Mr. Sanabria helps manage the band and plays percussion, bongos, the buleador barrel drum for bomba, the requinta hand drum (the lead hand drum in plena music) and performs backup vocals. Music to Mr. Sanabria means a connection to the island of Puerto Rico, learning more about where he came from and keeping traditions and culture alive while sharing with the community in Virginia.

In addition to performing, the group offers bomba and plena workshops, and lectures to performing arts organizations, universities and schools, where they discuss the origins of the music genres and the rhythms and instruments used as well as their roles in Puerto Rican culture and society. In between songs during performances, the band incorporates workshop aspects and provides information about bomba and plena music.

“It’s a grassroots effort,” Mr. Sanabria said. “It’s an indie band, we do a lot of it ourselves, but we’re really proud of everything that we’ve been able to accomplish.”