Festival de la Palabra (The Word Festival) is the top literary event in Puerto Rico, and the only literary festival in the world based on one single community -the Puerto Rican community- which is held in two very distinct cities: San Juan and New York, and for the first time celebrated at Loisaida Inc. in the heart of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The EXODUS series explores the Puerto Rican experience of migration, past and present. Focused on towns and municipalities that are encountering a rapid decrease in population, causing separation of families, homes to be abandoned, and businesses to be closed down. Today's crisis of the poor economy, high taxes, drugs and violence, and a decrease in agriculture that was once a thriving industry for Puerto Rico's economy has contributed to an estimated over 300,000 people leaving the island in the past 10 years, with 144,000 of them leaving in the last 4 years, and 64,000 leaving in 2014 alone.
San Juan Noir is an unprecedented volume of contemporary Puerto Rican fiction edited by renowned author Mayra Santos-Febres, creator of Puerto Rico’s Festival de la Palabra which its New York edition will be celebrated at Loisaida Inc. Center this same weekend.