SENIOR DAY (APRIL)
2025-04-04 10:00 - 13:00 UTC | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
SENIOR DAY – Friday, April 4 at 10:00 AM
The Loisaida Center’s Senior Day always takes place on the first Friday of the month (except for June), from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Activities include art or movement workshops, educational panels, demos or presentations, live music, snacks, coffee, and good company!
¡DÍA DE LAS PERSONAS DE TERCERA EDAD – viernes 4 de abril a las 10:00 AM
El Día de la Tercera Edad siempre se celebra el primer viernes de cada mes (excepto en junio), de 10:00 AM a 1:00 PM. Las actividades incluyen talleres de arte o movimiento, paneles educativos, demostraciones o presentaciones, música en vivo, refrigerios, café y ¡buena compañía!
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Location: Loisaida, Inc. Center
710 E 9th Street, New York, NY 10009
Questions? ¿Preguntas?
(646) 726-4715
info@loisaida.org

Ecolibrium Community Meeting: Solar and Batteries in Public Spaces
2025-04-24 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Ecolibrium Community Meeting: Solar and Batteries in Public Spaces
Date: April 24, 2025
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Loisaida Center, 710 East 9th St, NYC 10009
Join us for the next Ecolibrium Community Meeting, where we’ll explore the role of solar energy and battery storage in public spaces and their integration into a community-scale Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This initiative connects solar and battery installations in public parks, community centers, and shared spaces with residential and commercial buildings, creating a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable urban energy network.
At our last meeting, we introduced the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) concept, showcasing how distributed energy resources (DERs) can work together to support a decentralized, clean energy grid. This session will dive deeper into the practical applications of solar and battery systems in public spaces, highlighting their role in reducing emissions, enhancing grid reliability, and providing backup power during outages.
We’ll also provide an overview of Ecolibrium’s paid summer internship program, which offers hands-on experience in engineering, data science, IT & cybersecurity, environment, digital arts, media, and economics—preparing students for careers in the green economy while working with our community to create a vision for a climate resilient future in the LES.
Loisaida Center’s Ecolibrium program is committed to energy and climate justice, empowering local talent to design and implement innovative sustainability solutions. By merging technical expertise, creative problem-solving, and community-centered action, the program fosters the next generation of leaders in urban sustainability.
Be part of the conversation—help shape the future of community energy!
This initiative is made possible through the generous support of Con Edison, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (Ladders for Leaders), CUNY Career Corps, NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, and the U.S. Department of Education/Congressional Community Project Funding.

Fiesta De Cruz en Loisaida
2025-05-23 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
“For nine consecutive years (1990–1999), during the celebration of Mayo Florido, Madrina Milagros Rodríguez and the pleneros group El Quinto Sonó—composed of Enrique Díaz, Echavarrias, Johnny, and Carmen—helped me fulfill my promise to the cross. I also send greetings to Norman Valee and José Lyn, founders of the Green Oasis Garden on East 8th Street in New York, who now smile down on us from heaven. We celebrated our Fiesta de la Cruz there for seven years. Special thanks to Samy Tanco, Carmen Pabón, Julio Picó, Mercedes Amarilis Villaman, Miguel Juan Concepción, Dennis Girón, Jeff Fogel, Julio Peña, and David Lemeire, who dedicated their resources to sustaining and continuing the Fiestas de Cruz tradition in Loisaida.
Puerto Ricans brought the Fiestas de Cruz to New York, where they found fertile ground and took root. Just as in Puerto Rico, in the great New York City metropolis these celebrations have evolved—from being intimate, family-centered events to becoming large public gatherings with meticulous organization and the participation of hundreds of people.
It is expected that the six Fiestas de Cruz currently held in New York will continue. We even dare to predict a strengthening and expansion of the devotion to the Holy Cross, a tradition that has adapted well to changing times without losing its spiritual essence and cosmic significance.
Now rooted in concrete and snow, the Fiestas de Cruz offer a space for community nourishment and empowerment, a renewal of energy and faith in life. Devotees and participants remain loyal to them because of the deep benefits they experience—benefits that go beyond wholesome recreation or simple socializing.
The key lies in the symbol itself, the revelation within the ideogram: there resides an epiphany.
In summary, the journey undertaken toward the Fiestas de Cruz celebrated in New York is divided into two stages. The first analyzes the main components of the devotion in order to establish its origins, similarities, and meaning—seeking to uncover the mythical connections of universal resonance preserved within this particular expression.”
Las Fiestas de Cruz se han celebrado en Puerto Rico por mas de doscientos anos, arraigandose en el fervor popular como una de las preferidas o “tipicas”. Cuenta con celebraciones, devotos y participantes a lo largo y ancho de la isla del encanto Borinquen, pasando la prueba del tiempo, han evolucionado desde el altar hogareno hasta la actual actividad publica con kioscos, orquestas, donde devotos hacen despliege de extravagantes altares, politicos y firmas comerciales “hacen su agosto”.
Los puertorriquefios trajeron las Fiestas de Cruz a Nueva York donde encontraron tierra fertil, echando raices, al igual queen Puerto Rico, en la gran manzana neoyorquina se han transformado de ser un acontecimiento familiar en actos publicos, de meticulosa organizaci6n, contando con la participaci6n de cientos de personas. Se prevee un continuar de la celebraci6n de las seis Fiestas de Cruz queen la actualidad se llevan a cabo en Nueva York.
Nos atrevemos a pronosticar un fortalecimiento y expansion de la devoci6n a la Santisima Cruz, que tan bien se han amoldado a los tiempos sin desvirtuar su esencia espiritual de significado c6smico. Adaptadas al cemento y la nieve, son las Fiestas de Cruz un espacio de alimentaci6n y fortalecimiento comunitario, de renovaci6n de energias y fe en la vida, que sus devotos y participantes siguen fieles a ellas por los beneficios obtenidos, mas alla de la sana recreaci6n o mera socializaci6n. la clave del simbolo, la revelaci6n del ideograma:
Ahi reside Una epifania. Resumiendo, el viaje emprendido hacia las Fiestas de Cruz celebradas en Nueva York, esta dividido en dos etapas. En la primera se analizan los componentes principales de la devoci6n para establecer procedencia, semejanzas, significado, queriendo encontrar las conexiones miticas de resonancias universales preservadas en el hecho particular.
-MAITREYI VILLAMAN MATOS, LAS FIESTAS DE CRUZ EN NUEVA YORK.

Senior Day Summer BBQ
2025-07-11 10:30 - 13:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States

La Bomba Crece en Loisaida
2025-09-23 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States

HABITAR LAS FÁBULAS (LAB)
2025-10-10 15:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
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This event is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council and the Office of Councilmember Harvey Epstein, Manhattan District 2
HABITAR LAS FÁBULAS

Description:
Habitar las Fábulas is a series of dance performances inspired by the visual art series Fábulas by Uruguayan artist Fernanda Piñeirua. Through movement, we share women’s stories—of patriarchy, migration, ancestry, community, struggle, union, self-love, and death.

This project is both dialogue and tribute: a collective recomposition of Latin American women’s experiences. From image to gesture, the performances draw symbolic foundations from the Orixas dances of Brazilian Candomblé, the rhythms of Uruguayan candombe, the steps of Argentinian chacarera, and the language of Afro-Latin contemporary dance.
Each body becomes a question, a vessel for memory and resistance, a way of telling what words alone cannot hold. These dances invite the audience into empathy, trusting that the stories of South American women will resonate and echo in their own personal narratives, weaving a sense of shared community.

About Simbólica Cia. de Danza:
Simbólica is a Sudaka Latinafrocontemporary dance company that creates from the symbolic intersections of movement and knowledge. We dance to question what we believe, feel, and think—transforming body and emotion into tools for inquiry where the mind alone cannot reach. Our practice is rooted in regenerating, strengthening, and empowering both personal and collective identity.
María Noel Costa (Uruguay) is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher with training in jazz, modern, African, and contemporary dance. A three-time recipient of the Regional Fund for Culture, her works include I Have Something to Say and Morder.
Paula Sarmiento Ansorena (Argentina/Uruguay) is a dancer, researcher, and director whose creations blend traditional and contemporary Afro-Latin American dances. She has trained in Brazil, Guinea, Mexico, and New York, and is the director of Simbólica Cia. de Danza and member of Yiribas Cia.
Guest Artist: Mobéy Lola Irizarry (Puerto Rican diaspora/Chickasaw Nation) is a genderqueer cultural worker and multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sound, image, and performance.

Location: Loisaida, Inc.-710 E 9th St, New York, 10009

Praxis & Lab: 3:00 PM (Register here)

Performance: 7:00 PM (Register here)

HABITAR LAS FÁBULAS (PERFORMANCE)
2025-10-10 19:00 - 20:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
HABITAR LAS FÁBULAS

Description:
Habitar las Fábulas is a series of dance performances inspired by the visual art series Fábulas by Uruguayan artist Fernanda Piñeirua. Through movement, we share women’s stories—of patriarchy, migration, ancestry, community, struggle, union, self-love, and death.

This project is both dialogue and tribute: a collective recomposition of Latin American women’s experiences. From image to gesture, the performances draw symbolic foundations from the Orixas dances of Brazilian Candomblé, the rhythms of Uruguayan candombe, the steps of Argentinian chacarera, and the language of Afro-Latin contemporary dance.
Each body becomes a question, a vessel for memory and resistance, a way of telling what words alone cannot hold. These dances invite the audience into empathy, trusting that the stories of South American women will resonate and echo in their own personal narratives, weaving a sense of shared community.

About Simbólica Cia. de Danza:
Simbólica is a Sudaka Latinafrocontemporary dance company that creates from the symbolic intersections of movement and knowledge. We dance to question what we believe, feel, and think—transforming body and emotion into tools for inquiry where the mind alone cannot reach. Our practice is rooted in regenerating, strengthening, and empowering both personal and collective identity.
María Noel Costa (Uruguay) is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher with training in jazz, modern, African, and contemporary dance. A three-time recipient of the Regional Fund for Culture, her works include I Have Something to Say and Morder.
Paula Sarmiento Ansorena (Argentina/Uruguay) is a dancer, researcher, and director whose creations blend traditional and contemporary Afro-Latin American dances. She has trained in Brazil, Guinea, Mexico, and New York, and is the director of Simbólica Cia. de Danza and member of Yiribas Cia.
Guest Artist: Mobéy Lola Irizarry (Puerto Rican diaspora/Chickasaw Nation) is a genderqueer cultural worker and multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sound, image, and performance.

Location: Loisaida, Inc.-710 E 9th St, New York, 10009

Praxis & Lab: 3:00 PM (Register here)

Performance: 7:00 PM (Register here)

American Boricua Artist Talk with Omar Eaton-Martinez
2026-02-16 17:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Loisaida Center welcomes you to a special Artist Talk with Wanda Benvenutti, photojournalist of the current photography exhibition, American Boricua, and Omar Eaton-Martinez. In celebration of Black History Month, this conversation centers on Afro-Puerto Rican voices, lived experience, and the power of curating the everyday to challenge erasure and rewrite the narrative.
Black History is Puerto Rican History. From confronting anti-Blackness within our own communities to imagining a just cultural future, this dialogue honors the past while shaping what comes next.
Omar Eaton-Martinez is the Senior Vice President for Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and will join Wanda to discuss culture and the importance of accuracy and nuance in the experience of shared physical spaces. As American Boricua celebrates the Puerto Rican Diaspora throughout North America through a photojournalistic lens, Eaton-Martinez leads the preservation, interpretation, and overall stewardship of 28 historical sites across the country to tell the full American story.
This is an invitation to listen deeply, ask hard questions, and collectively build a more truthful and expansive understanding of who we are. Wanda Benvenutti ✕ Omar Eaton-Martinez in conversation at the Loisaida Center. This intimate gallery talk takes the form of a mutual interview, where Wanda and Omar speak with—and challenge—each other around the idea of “curating the everyday” as a way to disrupt the master narrative of Puerto Rican identity.
Monday, February 16, 2026 (Presidents Day Weekend)
Loisaida Center Theater (limited seating)
5:00 PM Doors & exhibition viewing
6:00 PM Conversation begins
Topics include:
• Puerto Rican identity beyond stereotype
• Afro-Latinidad and internal anti-Blackness
• Building a positive cultural future for the next 50–200 years
Introduced by: Pepe Flores, Loisaida community elder, co-founder of @lasaladepepe
Recorded live (YouTube + podcast format) #LoisaidaTV
Extended Q&A with artists, cultural workers, and the public. Space is limited (45–50 seats)
Registration required | Link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/8qusv5r
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistoryIsPuertoRicanHistory #AfroBoricua #AfroLatinidad #PuertoRicanHistory #DiasporaStories #AmericanBoricua #CuratingTheEveryday #DisruptTheNarrative #CounterNarratives #LivingArchives #PublicHistory #Loisaida #LowerEastSide #NYCCulture #CommunityVoices #CulturalWorkers #LatinxArts #CulturalEquity #RepresentationMatters #DecolonizeHistory #FutureAncestral

American Boricua Artist Talk with Maximo Colon (Exhibition Closing)
2026-03-30 17:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Loisaida Center welcomes you to a special Artist Talk with Wanda Benvenutti, photojournalist of the current photography exhibition, American Boricua, and Máximo Colón.
Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Máximo Rafael Colón is a New York-based photographer who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Colón’s photography speaks to his concerns of social justice, activism, and cultural expression, which encapsulate a wide range of interests in music, the human condition, and making visible the people of our society who are often marginalized through discrimination and inequality. His primary medium is analogue photography; Colón also creates assemblages in the found object tradition. His works have been exhibited in several venues throughout New York City and Puerto Rico, and a number of his photographs form part of the Centro De Estudios Puertorriqueños archives at CUNY Hunter College and of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Monday, March 30, 2026
Loisaida Center Studio (limited seating)
5:00 PM Doors & exhibition viewing
6:00 PM Conversation begins
Introduced by: Pepe Flores, Loisaida community elder, co-founder of @lasaladepepe
Recorded live (YouTube + podcast format) #LoisaidaTV
Extended Q&A with artists, cultural workers, and the public. Space is limited (45–50 seats)
Registration required.

Lectura y firma de libros con Choco Orta en Loisaida Center
2026-04-02 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Lectura y firma de libros con Choco Orta en Loisaida Centera at 7:00 pm
Loisaida Center se honra en presentar una lectura y firma de libros con la destacada cantautora, actriz y salsera puertorriqueña Choco Orta, este próximo jueves, 2 de abril a las 6:00 PM, con motivo de la presentación de su novela autobiográfica Si me comprendieras.
En este libro, Choco Orta comparte un recorrido profundamente personal por su vida, desde su niñez en la calle Carmen de Santurce hasta su consolidación como una figura imprescindible de la música puertorriqueña. A través de sus páginas, la autora ofrece una mirada honesta y valiente sobre las experiencias que moldearon su carácter y su visión del mundo: la familia, la negritud, el machismo, la rebeldía, la identidad y la música como refugio, afirmación y destino.
Esta presentación será una oportunidad especial para escuchar a la autora en primera persona, celebrar su trayectoria y dialogar en torno a una vida marcada por la perseverancia, la conciencia y el compromiso con su verdad.
Les invitamos a acompañarnos en esta velada literaria y cultural en comunidad.
📍 Loisaida Center📅 Jueves, 2 de abril🕕 6:00 PM
Join us this Thursday, April 2 at 6:00 PM at Loisaida Center for a special book reading and signing with acclaimed Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, actress, and salsera Choco Orta, celebrating her autobiographical novel, If You Understood Me (Si me comprendieras).
In this intimate and powerful work, Choco Orta reflects on her life journey, from her childhood in Santurce to her path as an artist, sharing stories shaped by family, race, gender, courage, and music as a force of transformation. Her voice and testimony offer a deeply moving portrait of a Puerto Rican, Black, and unapologetically authentic life in the arts.
We invite you to join us for this special evening of literature, memory, conversation, and community as we celebrate the life and legacy of one of Puerto Rico’s remarkable cultural voices.
📍 Loisaida Center📅 Thursday, April 2🕕 6:00 PM
#ChocoOrta #SiMeComprendieras #LoisaidaCenter #Loisaida #PuertoRicanCulture #PuertoRicanLiterature #AfroLatinidad #Salsa #BookReading #BookSigning #LatinxAuthors #Nuyorican #LESArts #BoricuaCulture

The 39th Annual Loisaida Festival
2026-05-24 | Avenue C / Loisaida Ave, New York, NY, 10009, United States
For nearly four decades, the Loisaida Festival has stood as one of the Lower East Side’s most cherished public traditions, bringing together residents, artists, families, merchants, community organizations, and visitors in a joyful celebration of the neighborhood’s enduring cultural life. In a community shaped by Nuyorican and immigrant histories, and one that continues to confront the pressures of displacement and cultural erasure, the Loisaida Festival remains a powerful affirmation of presence, memory, and collective pride.
This year’s theme, “Our AmeRícan Thing,” reflects our commitment to celebrating Loisaida not only as a geographic place, but as a language, a rhythm, and a way of belonging carried through music, poetry, theater, food, and shared community experience. Inspired by the spirit of Jesús “Tato” Laviera, the theme seeks to honor the neighborhood not through nostalgia alone, but through renewed energy, hope, imagination, and the living future we continue to shape together.
The 39th Annual Loisaida Festival, historically celebrated on the Sunday before Memorial Day, will take place on Sunday, May 24, 2026, from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM, spanning Avenue C / Loisaida Avenue from East 12th Street to East 5th Street. As the Lower East Side’s largest Puerto Rican-heritage and Latinx neighborhood block party, the Festival will once again feature a rich, multidisciplinary program across several activations throughout its footprint.
This year’s Main Stage, co-hosted by Giraldo Alvare and Caridad “La Bruja” de la Luz, will feature artists, including local alternative rock ensemble Daso y el Grupo Cemí feat. urbano artists; Daydrian and Bebé Bambú, salsa and merengue with Grupo K’ndela, afro-caribbean heritage music by Legacy Women, cumbia-rock from Philadelphia-based powerhouse Las Mariposas Galácticas, and Latin-jazz and flamenco by Grammy-award winning bassist, John Benítez & Revolution Latin Jazz. Featured street-level activations will also include Ecolibrium and BioBus Mobile Laboratory for children to explore community science and technology as well as cultural programs by BombaYo, the Nuyorican Poets Café, and an opening parade led by afro-brazilian samba reggae group Batalá NY; performances at Francisco Pancho Ramos Community Garden of Puerto Rican jíbaro music from YoToco and Grupo Fascinantes; and a dynamic TheaterLab at La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden featuring artists such as Fernandito Ferrer, and visiting us from Puerto Rico, urbano artists Guada and producer/deejay El S, alongside community partners like Dorill Initiative, El Bohío, Inc., and Third Street Music School. We are also especially excited that this year’s Festival will include the 40th Anniversary celebration of Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts (PRIDA) along Avenue C between East 5th and 6th Streets, as well as Somos Arte’s La Borinqueña Superhéroe Workshop and a Vejigante mask-making pop-up at Piragüa Art Space on 10th Street. Other street-level partners include: LES Yearbook, Fourth Arts Block, El Bohío, Lower Eastside Girls Club, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, and many more. The 39th annual commemorative poster art is by Mateo Nazario. Born in Guatemala and growing up both there and in Puerto Rico, Nazario is currently a resident artist at the Loisaida Center.
As part of this year’s celebration, Loisaida, Inc. will also honor a distinguished group of community leaders, cultural workers, and neighborhood champions through the Viva Loisaida! Awards, presented at the Essex Market. This year’s honorees are Council Member Chris Marte, recognized for his public service and steadfast advocacy for Lower Manhattan; Naomi Peña, for her leadership in education justice, family advocacy, and community empowerment; David Sanders, for his longstanding grassroots commitment to community building and neighborhood care; Chanel Elliott, for her trusted and tireless service to Lower East Side residents through constituent advocacy; and Destiny Mata, for her important photographic and archival work documenting the lived memory, culture, and resilience of the Lower East Side. Together, these awardees embody the spirit of Loisaida through service, creativity, advocacy, and deep commitment to community building.
The day’s offerings will include live music, poetry, theater, street performance, artisan vendors, and community-based programming reflective of the Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, Caribbean, and immigrant traditions that define Loisaida. Rooted in history and alive with contemporary energy, the Loisaida Festival continues to serve as a vital public platform where culture, memory, and community are not only celebrated but actively carried forward.
This year’s celebration is made possible thanks to the support of the Acacia Network, Popular Bank, Grand Street Settlement, Lower Manhattan Presbyterian Hospital, and Trinity Church Wall Street. Additional support is provided by Green Mountain Energy Company, Wellcare Medicare, and MetroPlus Health. Additional support for the Loisaida Festival and Loisaida Inc. cultural programs is provided by he New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, in partnership with the New York City Council, former Councilmember Carlina Rivera, and the current Council Member Harvey Epstein of Manhattan District 2, Community Board 3, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
As the Lower East Side’s largest Puerto Rican-heritage and Latinx neighborhood block party, the Festival will once again feature a rich, multidisciplinary program across several activations throughout its footprint.
Loisaida, Inc. continues to celebrate our Puerto Rican roots, Lower East Side immigrant contributions, Latiné and Caribbean heritage, through food, music, theater, art, and culture. The 39th annual commemorative poster art is by Mateo Nazario. Born in Guatemala and raised between their native Country and Puerto Rico. Nazario is currently a resident artist at the Loisaida Artist in Residence (L.A.I.R.) program.
Join us in this one-of-a-kind community celebration in the Lower East Side’s Loisaida neighborhood.
-Alejandro Epifanio Torres, Executive & Artistic Director, Loisaida, Inc.
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Sponsorship Opportunities • Vendor Registration Form
Volunteer Registration Form • Parade Registration Form
