Loisaida Inc.

Taller de Plena Mayagüezana Pt. 1
2015-02-07 14:00 - 17:00 UTC | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

TALLER DE PLENA MAYAGÜEZANA

WITH RICK SANTIAGO
COME JOIN US TO LEARN THIS UNIQUE VERY OLD STYLE OF PLENA!
The first series of workshops will consist of eight sessions.These sessions will work on basic aspects of the plena mayaguezana, such as:
– Tuning of the hand drums (panderos) and proper care-taking of the leather head-drum. Afinacion de panderos y explicacion sobre el curao de los cueros
– Basic rhythm patterns of the main base hand-drum (pandereta hermana)
– Basic rhythm patterns of the second hand-drum (pandereta prima)
– Relationship between the prima and hermana drums.
– Specific hand techniques: ahogo, llorao, chachareo, tono, esplayao, caballo, golpe brocha/guiro, camapeneo
– Relationship and similitude to bomba rhythms.
– Palitos/clave
– Maraca
– Structure of some plena riffs and verses.

8 CLASS WORKSHOP
EVERY SATURDAY FROM FEBRUARY 7TH – MARCH 28TH AT 12:00 PM
AGES YEARS 18 +
COST OF ENTIRE WORKSHOP (8 CLASSES) – $200 ($25 PER CLASS)

*FULL REGISTRATION DUE AT FIRST CLASS

ABOUT RICK:
Ricky Santiago has been a student and investigator of the plena from Mayaguez for almost 10 years. Working under the tutelage of Pedro ‘Unico’ Noguet Vásquez, a re-known maestro of the field, Ricky has studied some of the most ancient and unique rhythm patterns and techniques of this style of plena. In 2008 he joined the musical group Kapa Prieto, a group of musicians dedicated to the preservation and study of this unique kind of plena music. Kapa Prieto has, with time, evolved into a full-blown investigative and educational project working with interviews, research, video and audio recordings, workshops and public presentations. Their goal, and Ricky’s goal, is to preserve a cultural asset that is unique to Afro-Caribbean Puerto Rican music and to Puerto Rican culture at large.

A Reading of (M)others'
2015-02-13 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Doors will be open from 6:00 pm for the viewing of the exhibition, refreshments will be served.
The reading will start sharp at: 7:00 pm
Friday, February 13th, 2015
About the reading of (M)others’:
The dancer and performance artist will guide us through the development of her latest maternal character, showcased in the photo-exhibit.
Written and directed by: Jeca Rodríguez-Colón.
With the participation of: Sunilda Caraballo, Yarani del Valle and Maria Schirmer
About the exhibition: (M)others’ Politics Performances,
is a documentation of Jeca Rodríguez-Colón’s maternal characters as captured by photographers; Ricardo Alcaraz, Ben Lundberg, Marlène Ramirez-Cancio, Linda Duvall and Deborah Dudley

La Máquina Insular
2015-03-02 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Details

La Máquina Insular @ The Loisaida Center
$5 Admission (on-line)
https://eventbrite.com/event/15883153941/
$7 Admission at the Door
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La Máquina Insular runs with a powerful force. An army of four pleneros playing traditional and original plenas with the traditional instrumentation; panderetas (handheld frame drums), güiro (scrape gourd), and even forgotten instruments such as the tumbandero (wash tub bass) and the marímbola (plucked box bass part of the lamellophone family). Directed by Tito Matos, master plenero and virtuoso of the requinto, high pitched pandereta which improvises/solos over the rhythmic base of the plena, La Máquina Insular dominates the Afro-Boricua (Afro-Puerto Rican) musicalgenres masterfully and effortlessly. Their presentation guarantees a festive atmosphere which will transport the audience to the street corners of the emblematic barrios of the plena.
The Concert will be followed by a Q&A discussion.
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La Máquina Insular corre con fuerza poderosa. Un ejército de cuatro pleneros tocan plenas tradicionales y originales con la instrumentación tradicional; panderetas, güiro, y hasta instrumentos olvidados como el tumbandero (bajo de palangana) & la marímbola. Dirigidos por Tito Matos, maestro plenero y virtuoso del requinto, pandereta de afinación aguda que improvisa sobre la base rítmica de la plena, La Máquina Insular domina los géneros musicales Afro-Boricuas con maestría y sin esfuerzo aparente. Su presentación garantiza una atmosfera de fiesta que llevará a la audiencia a las esquinas de los barrios emblemáticos de la plena.
Al culminar el concierto habrá un conservatorio sobre la plena.
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Part of the Loisaida Center’s #PLENATORIUM series.
The PLENATORIOUM is a project initiative of the Loisaida Center focused on the nurture and documentation of the practice of Puerto Rican plena.
The first part of the title PLENATORIUM clearly comes from the aforementioned plena, and the second is the Latin suffix, -orium, which means “a place for” (a place or instrument for performing the action of the main element; a place used for something; a place for a particular function). In this way the title denotes and indicates “a place for plena” and refers to the use of the space and facilities at the Loisaida Center for plena-centric activity. The PLENATORIOUM therefore stems from and describes the basic idea of dedicating available time and space at the Loisaida Center to the hosting, presentation and documentation of such activities as plena forums, workshops, performances, and any other forms of sociocultural participation.

The Salvage Project
2015-03-12 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Details

Flux Theatre Ensemble’s The Salvage Project is a series of events where communities come together to share stories about the precious objects of their lives. Through sharing these stories, we’ll learn what matters most to the people with whom we share this city, and why.
The Salvage Project will unfold in three phases:
Thursday, March 12, beginning at 7pm.
Story circles: In collaboration with The Loisaida Center, Flux will host a series of story circles where community members will share the stories of a precious object. Our first story circle will be. Contact us to RSVP.
Continuing with:
The Salvage Project online: This Tumblr allows for anyone in New York City and beyond to share the story of a precious object, as well as read all of the stories we’ve compiled in story circles. Submit your salvage story online today.
Culminating with:
Salvage the production: The Salvage Project culminates in the full-length production of the world premiere play Salvage, which imagines a band of searchers looking for precious objects left behind in a post-catastrophe NYC. Salvage will run from April 10-25 at The Loisaida Center.
Interested participants in The Salvage Project will have the option of sharing their object as part of the scenic design of the full production, as well as opportunities to have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues.
Contact us to learn more and participate in The Salvage Project!

Community Screen Printing Workshop
2015-03-23 19:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Hester Street Collaborative & The Loisaida Center
present:

Water-Base Screen Printing Workshop

New One-Print Classes!
Only 2 sessions – 2 time-slots are open: Monday classes and Saturday classes;
Monday, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Saturday, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
FREE!
Ages 18+

Students will learn:
• The methodology, techniques and procedures of water base screen-printing for printing.
t-shirts, posters and others on similar types of material;

• How to utilize all equipment, tools, and supplies to produce a quality screen-printed product.

• How to translate their ideas into images – specifically, students will be encouraged to
explore issues of immigrant identity, community, and difference.

Program Objectives
• To engage students in the process of exploring their individual artistic vision by
developing personal imagery;
• To create an art project generated by using iconography, social and cultural community
issues;
• To appreciate the enrichment that art brings to his/her own life experience and the
possibilities for career development;
• To create a basic artist portfolio with the work performed during the work shop;
• To develop self-motivation, self-direction and a strong work ethic;
• To think critically, work creatively and collectively across difference.

The Program
Our medium will be water-base screen printing with an emphasis on photo emulsion processes.Students will be exposed to various techniques for making silkscreen prints, will gain basic mastery of these processes, and by the end of the program, will develop a series of their own single, and multiple color edition prints. Students will be encouraged to investigate their own interests and concepts in terms of content and image making in the process of printing. Themes of cultural history and preservation, art and activism, and immigrant identity will all be explored.
Workshop Timeline:
Unit 1: Introduction to Screen Printing
Unit 2: Image Preparation
Unit 3: Screen Preparation
Unit 4: Reclaiming the Screen
Unit 5: Screen Printing Operation
Unit 6: Substrates and Inks
Unit 7: Presenting and communicating to the broader community

HSC & The Loisaida Center would like to give
Special Thanks to:
Council Member, Margaret Chin
Council Member, Rosie Méndez

SALVAGE *WORLD PREMIERE*
2015-04-10 20:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Details

Flux Theatre Ensemble presents: SALVAGE
by August Schulenburg
directed by Heather Cohn
WORLD PREMIERE
OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY, APRIL 10 – 8:00pm
PREVIEWS APRIL 8 & 9 – 8:00pm*
*NO PERFORMANCES APRIL 15 OR APRIL 24
Salvage is a drama about Noma and Akiko, two government officials searching for precious objects through what’s left of a post-catastrophe New York City. When their manager Dennis hires Mandy, a veteran from America’s many wars, the searchers discover things that make them question their mission, and whether it’s time to let their city go.
Salvage will be presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble at The Loisaida Center (710 East 9th St on Ave C) April 8 – 25, Monday through Saturday at 8pm.
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Beginning with Salvage, no financial transaction is required to attend a Flux performance. Instead, Flux will use a “Living Ticket.” In their commitment to financial transparency, Flux will share their operating budget and leave it to each audience member to donate as they see fit.
Get Tickets Now!

Taller de Plena Mayagüezana - 2nd Round
2015-04-18 14:30 - 16:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
PLENA MAYAGÜEZANA WORKSHOP – 2nd Round –
COME JOIN US TO LEARN THIS UNIQUE VERY OLD STYLE OF PLENA!
APRIL 4TH – MAY 16TH
12:00 – 2:30 PM
AGES YEARS 18 +
This second series of workshops will consist of six sessions.These sessions will work on basic aspects of the plena mayaguezana, such as:
– Tuning of the hand drums (panderos) and proper care-taking of the leather head-drum. Afinacion de panderos y explicacion sobre el curao de los cueros
– Basic rhythm patterns of the main base hand-drum (pandereta hermana)
– Basic rhythm patterns of the second hand-drum (pandereta prima)
– Relationship between the prima and hermana drums.
– Specific hand techniques: ahogo, llorao, chachareo, tono, esplayao, caballo, golpe brocha/guiro, camapeneo
– Relationship and similitude to bomba rhythms.
– Palitos/clave
– Maraca
– Structure of some plena riffs and verses.
For more info and tickets
HERE

NuyoCuba: Poetics & Diaspora
2015-04-21 18:00 - 20:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.
2 hrs ·
(a panel plus performance)
featuring Alberto Abreu Arcia, Aja Monet, and Rich Villar, moderated by Urayoán Noel.
Born in 1961 in Cardenas, Matanzas province, a heartland of African culture in Cuba, Alberto Abreu is a novelist, essayist, and social critic on such topics as race and identity and LGBT issues. He is a member of ARAAC, the Cuban civil rights organization. He was coordinator of Virgilio Piñera Narrative Workshop, held in the city of Matanzas. In 1988, he published a volume of short stories The big world. His essay Virgilio Piñera: a man, an island received in 2000 the Enrique José Varona UNEAC Prize. His La Gaceta de Cuba (2003) received mention in the X Prize . He organized the selection and preparation of Zero hour, an anthology of Matanzas stories which was released in 2005. That same year his book The Writing Games received the Dador Award from the Cuban Book Institute . He also received the Casa de las Américas Prize in 2007. (from http://www.afrocubaweb.com/abreu.htm)
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Aja-Monet is a Cuban-Jamaican poet originally from East NY, Brooklyn. At 19 years old, she was the youngest to ever win the Grand Slam Champion title of the Lower East side’s legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Café in 2007. Her work is classically surrealist, engaging altogether Hip Hop, Soul, and literary audiences.
She dedicates her time and energy working with inner-city adolescence, providing performance poetry workshops and opportunities. Aja Monet received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Aja Monet’s first book of poems, The Black Unicorn Sings, was independently published with Penmanship books (2010). She recently collaborated with poet/musician Saul Williams to edit a book of poetry due out on MTV Books/Simon & Schuster Publishing in Fall 2012 called, Chorus. She is currently working on a book of science-fiction and new music. (from https://www.facebook.com/poetajamonet/info?tab=page_info)
—–
Rich Villar is a writer, performer, editor, activist, and educator originally from Paterson, New Jersey. His first collection of poems, Comprehending Forever, won the Editor’s Choice from the Willow Books Literature Awards in 2013, and it was published by Willow the following year. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee for both his prose and his poetry, and his work has been published in several journals, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Rattapallax, and Black Renaissance Noire.
He served as a founding director, host, and co-curator for Acentos, a grassroots project fostering the Latino/a voice in American letters. From 2003-2012, through its workshops, panels, reading series, and public programming, Acentos allowed Latino/a poets at all skill levels to connect with multicultural audiences as well as their peers, in the one of the most historic Latino enclaves in the nation, the South Bronx. He has been quoted on Latino/a literature and culture by HBO, The New York Times, and the Daily News. On the radio, he has been heard on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, and on the long-running NPR newsmagazine “Latino USA.”
Since 2008, he has served as a curator for La Casita at Lincoln Center Out Of Doors, appearing twice as the show’s emcee. He has been a frequent performer, host, and curator at the iconic Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe, and he has contributed poems and performances to various theater spaces, including Actors Stock NYC, and Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ. (from https://literatiboricua.wordpress.com/about/)

Taller de Plena Mayagüezana - 2nd Round
2015-04-25 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-05-02 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-05-09 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-05-16 14:30 - 16:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
2nd Round – PLENA MAYAGÜEZANA WORKSHOP
COME JOIN US TO LEARN THIS UNIQUE VERY OLD STYLE OF PLENA!
This second series of workshops will consist of six sessions.These sessions will work on basic aspects of the plena mayaguezana, such as:
– Tuning of the hand drums (panderos) and proper care-taking of the leather head-drum. Afinacion de panderos y explicacion sobre el curao de los cueros
– Basic rhythm patterns of the main base hand-drum (pandereta hermana)
– Basic rhythm patterns of the second hand-drum (pandereta prima)
– Relationship between the prima and hermana drums.
– Specific hand techniques: ahogo, llorao, chachareo, tono, esplayao, caballo, golpe brocha/guiro, camapeneo
– Relationship and similitude to bomba rhythms.
– Palitos/clave
– Maraca
– Structure of some plena riffs and verses.
6 CLASS WORKSHOP
EVERY SATURDAY FROM APRIL 4TH – MAY 16TH
12:00 – 2:30 PM
NO WORKSHOP APRIL 11th
AGES YEARS 18 +
For more info and tickets
HERE

Ninth Street Tell-a-Thon
2015-05-09 13:00 - 17:00 | La Plaza Cultural, 700 E 9th Street, New York, 10009, United States

Community Screen Printing Workshops
2015-05-09 14:00 - 16:00, 2015-05-11 18:30 - 20:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Hester Street Collaborative & The Loisaida Center
present:
Water-Base Screen Printing Workshop
New One-Print Classes!
Only 2 sessions – 2 time-slots are open: Monday classes and Saturday classes;
Monday, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Saturday, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
FREE!
Ages 18+
Students will learn:
• The methodology, techniques and procedures of water base screen-printing for printing.
t-shirts, posters and others on similar types of material;
• How to utilize all equipment, tools, and supplies to produce a quality screen-printed product.
• How to translate their ideas into images – specifically, students will be encouraged to
explore issues of immigrant identity, community, and difference.

Ninth Street Tell-A-Thon
2015-05-10 12:00 - 15:00 | La Plaza Cultural, 700 E 9th Street, New York, 10009, United States
Click here for directions to La Plaza Cultural

Please fill out registration form below:
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Click here for directions to La Plaza Cultural

Pa' la calle!! - Theatre Workshops for the Community
2015-05-22 13:00 - 17:00, 2015-05-23 13:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Theatre workshop for community members: Pa’ la calle!!
– 16 +, open to public in general
5 hours, English and/or Spanish, maximum capacity: 10-15 people
– site specific work
– street theatre techniques
– object manipulation
– corporal mime training techniques
This is an introductory workshop and it’s open for people without any experience. Artists will work with basic concepts of each technique. On the other hand, if you have previous experience, the artists will guide, council and help you apply these tools to facilitate your creative process.
Bring
-An object (that you can perform with)
-comfortable clothes
-Water and snacks
-Yoga mat and/or towel

Boiler plate
About Vueltabajo:
The transdisciplinary art collective now working in Puerto Rico adopts the name Vueltabajo Teatro in Barcelona, Catalunya in 2012. It was born with the initiative of re-habilitating and activating a space: Magatzem Voltaire in Poble Sec, dedicated to art investigation and production. Its creative collaborators have been working together for more than 10 years now. The collective has developed methods of creating repertoire based on “practice as research” (presentations, residencies and laboratories). Each artist creates a seed (concept) and together research the use of diverse tools: physical theatre, movement, performance, street theatre, visual arts, media experimentation, music, site-specific.
About Narices Negras:
Concept:
A duet of characters that stumble upon everyday situations use their imagination to create worlds that help them cope with their routines. Common household chores are taken to the street, making the personal habits public, as something very natural. Narices Negras are nomads, floating on the frontier.
The performers use street theatre techniques, clown and corporal mime to shape their training. Improvisation and site-specific work is essential during the creation and investigation process for further developing the characters, thus the piece itself.
Click here to RSVP

Performing Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Cabaret
2015-05-22 20:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Performances by:
Emanuel Xavier is a poet and performer of Ecuadorian/Puerto Rican heritage and an iconic figure of the Loisaida spoken word and performance scenes. He is the author of the poetry books Nefarious (2013), Americano: Growing up Gay and Latino in the USA (2012), Pier Queen (2012), and If Jesus Were Gay & other poems (2010), the novel Christ Like (2009), and the audio spoken word album, Legendary (2009). He is editor of Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry (2011) and Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (2008). He appeared on Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO and has performed in cities throughout the United States, Buenos Aires, Ghent, London, and Paris.
Susana Cook is an icon of the Lower East Side lesbian underground. Born in Argentina, Cook is a New-York-based playwright, performer and director of works in political theater. She has staged 16 original plays, including Hamletango, 100 years of Attitude, Dykenstein, Spic for Export, and Ther Values Horror Show, in venues such as Dixon Place, P.S. 122, W.O. W Café Theater, Ubu Rep, and The Kitchen.
Jorge Merced is an award-winning actor, theatre director, and queer scholar and activist. He is associate artistic director of the Pregones Theater where he has directed plays and performances such as Baile Cangrejero, El Apagón, Blanco, Aloha Boricua, Migrants!, Las facultades, Neon Baby, and Marchers Trilogy and the readings and workshop productions for the Asunción Playwrights Project. His New York directing credits also include Fellini’s La Strada with René Buch, El huésped vacío and The Smell of Popcorn (IATI). As an actor, he is acclaimed for his role as Loca la de la locura [The Queen of Madness] in Pregones’s play based on the writer Manuel Ramos Otero’s short story of the same name, El bolero fue mi ruina [The Bolero Was My Downfall]. He has trained, performed, and directed throughout the U.S. and abroad in Brazil, Chile, Cuba, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, and Spain.
Karen Jaime is an acclaimed spoken word/performance artist and poet, an accomplished scholar, and a postdoctoral research associate (2014-2015)/ Assistant Professor (2015-) in the Department of Performance and Media Arts and the Latina/o Studies Program at Cornell University. As a performer, she has served as the host/curator for the Friday Night Slam at the world-renowned Nuyorican Poets Cafe, participated in the spoken word documentary Spit!, and was featured in the Emmy-award winning CUNY-TV program Nueva York. As a poet, Jaime’s work is included in The Best of Panic! En Vivo From the East Village, Flicker and Spark: A Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry, and in a special issue of Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, “Out Latina Lesbians.” Her critical writing has been published in Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, in the online journal of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, e-Misférica, and in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism. Karen is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Queering Poetry in Loisaida: Language, History, and Performance at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Hosted by: Larry LaFountain-Stokes is a distinguished creative writer, scholar, and performer. He is an associate professor of Spanish and American Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and author of the bilingual book of short stories and personal essays Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails, the performance piece Abolición del pato, and the scholarly study Queer Ricans: Puerto Rican Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora. He is well-known for his performance persona Lola von Miramar.
Curated by: Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé is professor of Spanish and comparative literature, and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Institute at Fordham University in New York. He is the author of Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza: Hard Tails, a book about art and queer Latino popular culture in the gentrifying New York of the 1980s, and coeditor, with Martin Manalansan, of Queer Globalization: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism. He has been a recipient of the Ford Foundation and the NEH fellowships.
Sponsored by:

FOR MORE INFO VISIT: http://www.loisaidafest.org

HOMENAJE: The Traveling Exhibit Honoring Our Puerto Rican and Nuyorican Heroes
2015-05-23 - 2015-06-06 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
HOMENAJE: The Traveling Exhibit Honoring Our Puerto Rican and Nuyorican Heroes
This traveling exhibit, consisting of 17 by 11 horizontal posters, pays tribute and homage to those Puerto Ricans and Nuyoricans who have paved the way for others over the past twenty to sixty years and who are still in the forefront of the fight for recognition, parity, and equity for all Puerto Ricans. The heroes featured in HOMENAJE are our Puerto Rican heroes, and they are and have been our voices. The exhibit introduces our heroes to a new generation of Puerto Ricans throughout New York City. To that end, each portrait is accompanied by a loosely biographical story that reveals each hero’s unique personality and idiosyncrasies. The posters are strung together in different configurations using clotheslines and clothespins—reminiscent of how clothes were dried in the old days from tenement windows and how clothes are still dried in many places in Puerto Rico. Some of the cultural icons who are featured in HOMENAJE include writers/poets Nicholasa Mohr, Miguel Algarín, Dr. Nancy Mercado, Dr. Myrna Nieves and Jesús Papoleto Meléndez; opera singer Eva de la O; musicians Johnny Colón, Bobby Sanabria and Orlando Marín; artists Marcos Dimas and Nitza Tufiño; activists Terésa Santiago, Sery Colón and Jaime Estades; choreographers Merián Sóto and Arthur Áviles; and boxer Carlos Ortiz.

HOMENAJE is a traveling exhibit, a modern take on the original groundwork laid by the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. It will tour different Puerto Rican neighborhoods in New York City—from community centers to bodegas to galleries to senior centers to museums to local colleges and schools to local teen hangouts. Instead of asking Puerto Ricans to go to a gallery or museum to see the work, the exhibition visits the typical Puerto Rican in his/her own Puerto Rican neighborhood.

For more information on the exhibit, go to Homenaje: A Traveling Homage to Our Puerto Rican Heroes and Facebook.
Viewing hours by appointment only, for more info email: alejandro@loisaida.org

Reconstructing Queer Latin@ Loisaida in Cinema Literature and Art
2015-05-23 13:00 - 17:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Reconstructing Queer Latin@ Loisaida in Cinema
Literature and Art (1:00-5:30 pm)
Sponsored by: Loisaida Inc.
Loisaida has long been recognized as an international cutting-edge center of creativity and experimentation in the arts and activism. However the contribution of Latin@ lgbtq artists and activists in creating this culture, which has inspired the rest of the nation and the world, has only recently been the object of scholarly study. The Loisaida Center pays homage to two of the founding figures of Queer Latin@ Loisaida art and activism, drag performer Mario Montez (1935-2013) and performance artist Alina Troyano (a.k.a Carmelita Tropicana), divas of queer Latin@ Loisaida cinema and stage, by showing two of their most famous and representative films, José Rodríguez-Soltero’s The Life, Death, and Assumption of Lupe Velez (1966) and Ela Troyano’s Your Kunst Is Your Waffen (1996). The viewing of Lupe will be introduced by Yale University film historian and curator Ron Gregg. The viewings ofLupe and Your Kunst will be followed by Q & A with curator Ron Gregg, the artist Alina Troyano, and the director Ela Troyano. A panel of distinguished scholars discussing the state of the research on the contribution of Latin@ lgbtq artists and activists to Loisaida’s cultural and social life will follow the viewings. Curated by Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé.
Divas of Queer Latin@ Loisaida Cinema and Stage:
Mario Montez and Carmelita Troyano
1:00-2:00 pm José Rodríguez-Soltero’s The Life, Death, and Assumption of Lupe Velez (1966) (50 mins). Starring Mario Montez. Introduced by Ron Gregg (Yale University)
2:00-2:30 pm Ela Troyano’s Your Kunst Is Your Waffen (1996) (27 mins). Starring Carmelita Tropicana.
2:30-3:30 pm Q and A with Ron Gregg, Ela Troyano, and Alina Troyano (a.k.a Carmelita Tropicana).
The State of Research on Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Round Table Discussion.
3:30-5:30 pm A panel of distinguished scholars discusses the state of the research on the contribution of Latin@ lgbtq artists and activists to Loisaida’s cultural and social life: What have Latin@ lgbtq artists and activists contributed to the culture of experimentation and innovation, social and individual expression that is associated with Loisaida? What have the interactions been between Latin@ lgbtq artists and activists and other queer Loisaida artists and activists? What have the interactions been between Latin@ queer artists and activists and Loisaida artists and activists from other racial and ethnic groups? What have the interactions been between Latin@ queer artists and other Loisaida Latin@ artists and activists? What are the “hidden” or unexplored histories of queer Latin@ Loisaida? Where should we look to recover these “hidden” or unexplored histories? What role or roles have queer Latin@ Loisaida artists and activists played in the cultural, social, and economic transformations of Loisaida from 1970s to the present?
With the participation of:
Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Columbia University)is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and scholar. She is an associate professor of English and Latino Studies at Columbia University, the director of the Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activist archive at Butler Library. Among her books and publications are Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (winner, 2004 CHOICE Award), The Latino Media Gap, and Sovereign Acts. Her films include AIDS in the Barrio, Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican, and Small City, Big Change. In 2005, she was named one of the “100 Most Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine, and the United Nations’ Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her in 2008 as a “global expert.” She is also the recipient of El Diario/La Prensa’s annual “Distinguished Women Award” (2010) and Columbia University’s “Most Distinguished Faculty Award” (2012).
Roy Pérez (Willamette University)is an accomplished scholar and poet and an assistant professor of English, American Ethnic Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He received his PhD in English at New York University with concentrations in Latina/o literary and performance studies and is a past fellow of the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He has published poems and essays in Glitter Tongue, the Best of Panic! poetry anthology, TheThePoetry, bully bloggers, and FENCE Magazine, and recently adapted one of his poems to film with director Finn Paul. His current scholarly book project, Proximity: Queer Configurations of Race and Sex, examines the function of interracial closeness in the articulation of sexual identity by queer artists from the late-nineteenth century into the twenty-first.
Karen Jaime (Cornell University)is an acclaimed spoken word/performance artist and poet, an accomplished scholar, and a postdoctoral research associate (2014-2015)/ Assistant Professor (2015-) in the Department of Performance and Media Arts and the Latina/o Studies Program at Cornell University. As a performer, she has served as the host/curator for the Friday Night Slam at the world-renowned Nuyorican Poets Cafe, participated in the spoken word documentary Spit!, and was featured in the Emmy-award winning CUNY-TV program Nueva York. As a poet, Jaime’s work is included in The Best of Panic! En Vivo From the East Village, Flicker and Spark: A Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry, and in a special issue of Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, “Out Latina Lesbians.” Her critical writing has been published in Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, in the online journal of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, e-Misférica, and in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism. Karen is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Queering Poetry in Loisaida: Language, History, and Performance at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Larry LaFountain-Stokes (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor)is a distinguished creative writer, scholar, and performer. He is an associate professor of Spanish and American Studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and author of the bilingual book of short stories and personal essays Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails, the performance piece Abolición del pato, and the scholarly study Queer Ricans: Puerto Rican Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora. He is well-known for his performance persona Lola von Miramar.
Moderated by: Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé (Fordham University)is professor of Spanish and comparative literature, and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Institute at Fordham University in New York. He is the author of Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza: Hard Tails, a book about art and queer Latino popular culture in the gentrifying New York of the 1980s, and coeditor, with Martin Manalansan, of Queer Globalization: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism. He has been a recipient of the Ford Foundation and the NEH fellowships.
Sponsored by:

FOR MORE INFO VISIT: http://www.loisaidafest.org

Loisaida Festival 2015
2015-05-24 11:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The largest community pride event in Manhattan’s most historic neighborhood.
The Lower East Side.

Background
Since 1987 the Loisaida Festival has been celebrated the Sunday before Memorial Day weekend in the Manhattan neighborhood known as the Lower East Side, the East Village, or Loisaida. This event is the largest community pride festival in the neighborhood and grows annually in size, excitement, and impact. It is presented in the Avenue C commercial corridor-renamed Loisaida Avenue since 1989.
The Loisaida Festival includes diverse manifestations of the Puerto Rican and Latino cultures expressed through music, cuisine and arts. Although it began as a community event to celebrate the culture, heritage and accomplishments of Loisaida’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic community, the event has created a multi-cultural spirit where people from all races and backgrounds descend from all parts on the city into this historic and eclectic neighborhood.
The Loisaida Festival has also created a platform for Loisaida’s Latino and, now growing, non-Latino neighborhood residents and families that come together on the day of the event to share and celebrate the Memorial Day Holiday as well as their social and cultural differences. The program includes musical concerts, dance performances, folkloric musical presentations, and arts and crafts exhibitions that showcase the work of artisans that represent diverse ethnic groups and nationalities. It also serves as a vehicle to disseminate critical community information distributed by employees and volunteers of many local and city-wide health and human services organizations.
The Loisaida Festival is sponsored by Loisaida Inc., the oldest Puerto Rican non-for-profit organization in the neighborhood. Loisaida, Inc. was founded in 1979 to address the problem of social and economic disenfranchisement of poor, low income and working class residents of the Lower East Side. Over the years, Loisaida has provided comprehensive education, training and employment opportunities that have targeted young adults. It has also worked with local businesses in neighborhood economic development activities as a means to promote entrepreneurship and help create jobs for local residents.
The festival weekend attracts over 15,000 participants every year. This year, Loisaida, Inc. is poised to generate even more excitement and traffic to Avenue C with the opening of its new Community Center on 9th Street, which will happen this spring. The festival will become an even more significant Loisaida community event and venue as a signature citywide and tourist destination.
Event Objectives

Contribute to the preservation and promotion of the Latin American culture of the Lower East Side neighborhood.
Enhance, promote and support the artistic-cultural expressions of the Latino and other artists that reside in this community and/or working in the Lower East Side.
Provide culturally-relevant, first-class entertainment and educational opportunities for the entire family, neighborhood residents and visitors.
In the tradition of this historic New York City neighborhood, known as the “America’s Gateway”, expose non-Latino community residents and visitors to the rich and diverse Latin culture as expressed thorough its music, arts, cuisine and folklore, and promote multi-ethnic understanding and harmony.
Provide a platform to disseminate educational, health-specific information and public interest information to community residents, and special needs populations.
Remember and recognize Puerto Ricans/Latinos who, through their advocacy and leadership, helped establish and strengthen local institutions, and worked to help improve the economic, educational and social conditions of the Latino community of the Lower East Side.

Location

The Festival is held on Avenue C (Loisaida Avenue) from East 12th to East 6th Streets. Parking around the neighborhood is extremely limited, so the best way to get to the festival is Subway.

The closest stations are:

L train to First Avenue and 14th Streets
Lexington (green line) to Union Square; at Union Station you can transfer to the Eastbound L train to First Avenue
F Train to Delancey Street. (free shuttle bus service from this location to festival)

Transportation

The First Avenue and 14th Street stop of the L Train is at walking distance from the festival site–Avenue C and 12th Street. Commuters on the Lexington Line [4, 5, and 6] at Union Square can transfer to L, to reach the East Side, or transfer to the Avenue A or D 14th Street cross-town buses and get off on Avenue B and 14th Street.

Visitor’s Tips List

This event is free to the public and family-oriented, therefore, no sale or promotion of alcohol and tobacco will be allowed.
Pick up a Festival Program and Guide at the Official Loisaida Festival information booth to be stationed on the Southeast corner of Avenue C and 9thh Street.
Keep your children engaged and excited with hands-on activities offered at the Children’s Pavilion.
Reunite with old friends and relatives at The Placita-Under the Willow Trees, located on the Southwest corner of 9th Street.

Invisible Loisaida - Ideas City
2015-05-30 12:00 - 18:00 | NY
IDEAS CITY
Part of the Street Program 12:00 -6:00pm
Loisaida Inc: Invisible Loisaida
The booth by Loisaida, Inc. will play with the visible and invisible tensions of rescued social spaces, their cultural output, and their lack of inclusion in the mainstream story line of the Lower East Side. Through a collaborative installation by resident artists Edgardo Tomás Larregui and Alejandro Epifanio, the booth will recreate the vernacular architecture of “seclusion” and social gathering elements of the traditional casita or urban community garden. Our casita also involves a strategy to render visible the reality of Loisaida, Inc., a social-cultural-artistic community (Latino/Puerto Rican Lower East Side), whose contributions to New York City and the downtown scene have usually remained unacknowledged, absent, and invisible to the hegemonic artistic and cultural narratives of New York City’s creative myth. The presentation will feature a listening station of oral histories by Laura Zelasnic, performances by ongoing Loisaida Center collaborators and projects: the Salvage Project; Flux Theater Ensemble; the Plenatorium, which nurtures and documents the “plena universe”; and Edwin Torres, a Nuyorican poet, performer, and downtown icon, who will explore the nonappearance of “No-isaida.”

A– ONGOING programming throughout the day:
1. Display and live screen-printing of the templates and prints developed and produced through our workshop: Building Community Through the Arts, a partnership with Hester Street Collaborative.
2. Listening Station featuring oral histories focused on local Latino cultural and community organizations such as CHARAS and Loisaida, Inc., by Laura Zelasnic.
3. Visual Collaborative Installation(s) between artist collaborators of the Loisaida Center. The entire booth will act as an installation and visual collaboration between visual artist’s Alejandro Epifanio and Edgardo Larregui with the support of Urban Garden Center NYC.

B– SCHEDULED programming by time-slots:
3:00 pm – The Salvage Project:
Story circles facilitated by the Loisaida Center’s artistic residents Flux Theater Ensemble where community members will share the stories of a precious object and have their stories transformed by professional playwrights into short monologues.
http://www.fluxtheatre.org/2015/02/flux-announces-art-residency-loisaida-center/
4:00 pm – Edwin Torres:
“Nuyorican” (New York-Puerto Rican) poet-performer-sound artist and downtown icon will present work based on the Invisible Loisaida theme. Torres’s work bridges numerous downtown and Loisaida traditions and scenes, from the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and beyond. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Torres_(poet)
5:00pm – PLENATORIUM:
A project initiative of the Loisaida Center focused on the nurturing and documentation of the practice of Puerto Rican plena, a genre of popular traditional music, song and dance native to the island of Puerto Rico, but related to similar Afro-diasporic expressions throughout the Caribbean and commonly present within the casita/community garden culture.
Planetarium means a space for the plena-universe of activities such as forums, workshops, performances, and other forms of plena-focused sociocultural participation.
http://loisaida.org/plenatorium/

Invisible Loisaida is made possible by:“Sprawling family-owned garden resource for plants, seeds, sod, tools, accessories & firewood”
Address: 1640 Park Ave, New York, NY 10035
Phone:(646) 872-3991
Hours: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm

en casa afuera
2015-06-12 18:00 - 2015-06-19 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
en casa afuera
June 12- 19
Opening Reception and Performances June 12 at 6:00 pm.
A live exhibit which will bring together new young artists— Mckenzie Angelo, Anthony Rosado, Jonathan Gonzalez, Yoira Santos, Adam Echahly, Lamar Stephens, Adam Rhodes, Chazz Bruce, and Stephanie Mota.

Curatorial Statement
en casa afuera –
Think gentrification is completely erasing the hirstory and identities of native New York residents? Think again. Amidst new developments, increasing rents, empty storefronts, newcomers in LES, Crown Heights, Washington Heights, Harlem, & Bushwick, artists are finding ways to claim their stake in the areas, tethering the old soul of these communities. A group of such artists are coming to Loisaida, Inc.’s Center, one of the remaining physical spaces serving the LES and NYC Latino and independent community, to present a series of interactive works paying tribute to the Home(s).
en casa afuera, a live exhibit which will run from June 12th to June 19th, brings together new young artists from the metropolitan New York and New Jersey region spanning the ages of mid 20’s-30’s.— Mckenzie Angelo, Anthony Rosado, Jonathan Gonzalez, Yoira Santos, Adam Echahly, Lamar Stephens, Adam Rhodes, Chazz Bruce, and Stephanie Mota. They came together to investigate the intersections of home and displacement, as well as the potential for art making to reflect and revision these relations. Loisaida Inc., as the performance hub, may then be the home or shelter that localizes this web of creative results.
The process of what initially began as a series of conversations on the shifting dynamics of New York City, the forces that will it, and what is authentic in these urban amalgamations, developed into a need to generate around these lofty queries – what is home? and what remains as the physical departs from what we know it to be? (whether by a stripping of possession or decay.) Lastly, what does this process of transition look like, feel like, for us?
Visitors and members of the community, old and new, are encouraged to the engage in and think about the daily rituals of Home(s). The series of installations range from the symbolic to the banal. One of the works, a collage in the main hallways shows a Nuyorican’s response to gentrification while another shares with audiences the everyday objects our communities use to pamper themselves. Together, all works zoom in and out of the experience of a changing neighborhood.
en casa afuera represents and shines light onto the complex process of change and gentrification in NYC, and celebrates the histories that are passed on from generation to generation and carried everywhere. Above all, they encourage artists and guests to preserving our stories and our communities will follow.
When asked what Loisaida means for them the group responded:
“Loisaida has been an iconic place-maker for both its residents and the world at large. It architecturally houses the pride and cultural breadth of a community, while transcending the energetic embodiment of LES – a location/identity in flux. These dynamics are at the heart of our creative interests and explorations en casa afuera.”

Adam Echamy

Stephanie Mota

Mckenzie Angelo

Lamar Stevens

Johnathan Gonzalez

Chazz Giovanni

Adam Rhodes

Anthony Rosado

Yoira Santos

¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York. *OPENING*
2015-07-30 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Details

Dates : July 30th – October 10th
Open from Tuesday & Thursday (11:00 am – 7:00 pm) & Saturday (11:00 am – 3:00 pm) All other days are by appointment only, for more information please email info@loisaida.org
Loisiada Inc. will focus on the Young Lords’ founding and impact in the Lower East Side—displaying rarely seen photographs, posters, and audio and video recordings of live performances. The exhibit begins with the announcement of the founding of the New York Chapter of the Young Lords at Tompkins Square Park on Saturday, July 26, 1969. The exhibition will feature lesser-known perspectives of the Young Lords legacy within the Lower East Side, and their cultural impact upon New York’s cultural scenes. Some highlights include the organizing efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Caucus, the transgender activism of Sylvia Rivera, and innovative “artivism” generated by Eddie Figueroa, the founder of the New Rican Village, an influential multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary art space once located at 101 Avenue A.
The exhibition is co-curated by Libertad Guerra and Wilson Valentín-Escobar and features many un-published photographs by Máximo Colón and Hiram Maristany, as well as poster art by Sandra Maria Esteves, and rare live video and audio recordings of some of the leading salsa and Latin jazz musicians, plus an art installation commissioned specifically for this exhibition by contemporary artist Adrian “Viajero” Román.
The overall collection of materials depict the critical role that YL members played in the environment that lead to Loisaida becoming a safe refuge for a community struggling for respect, belonging, political power, and public legitimacy.
FYI: Due to the limited capacity at The Loisaida, Inc. Center, attendance will be monitored and kept at legal occupancy.

Gallery Talk with Photographer Maximo Colon: ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York - LES
2015-08-05 15:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
As part of ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York – LES, on Wednesday, August 5th at 6:30pm, the The Loisaida, Inc. Center hosts a Gallery talk with Maximo Colon – featured photographer.
Followed at 7:30pm by Presente in Absentia: Diasporic Responses to Puerto Rico’s Crisis: teach-in/panel discussion to clarify the reasons for the crisis and engage in dialog about what is to be done.

Presente in Absentia: Diasporic Responses to Puerto Rico’s Crisis
2015-08-05 20:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Puerto Rico is facing a crisis over its $72 billion debt that threatens life on the island while also causing a mass migration to the US.
What can the Puerto Rican Diaspora do to respond?
As part of ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York – LES, on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. the The Loisaida, Inc. Center in Lower Manhattan will present a combination teach-in/panel discussion to clarify the reasons for the crisis and engage in dialog about what is to be done. Journalist Ed Morales, who has written several articles for the Nation and the Guardian about the subject, will present a brief overview of the crisis and engage with panel members activist David Galarza Santa, the leader of Puerto Rico’s Working People’s Party Rafael Bernabe, and the audience.
Preceded by a 5:30pm tour w curators and 6:30pm Gallery Talk w Maximo Colon

We refused to cave In
2015-09-24 18:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Sept. 24th, 2015 – “We refused to cave In”: Gender, Race, Class, and Decolonial Intersectionality in the Young Lords’ Liberation Politics
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Darrel Wanzer-Serrano
Assistant Professor, The University of Iowa
Based on a chapter from The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation (Temple University Press, 2015), this talk engages the process by which the Young Lords shifted from an organization rooted in the idea that “machismo” could be “revolutionary” to one that rejected machismo as a product of a racist/sexist/imperialist/capitalist system. The Young Lords advanced a nuanced and cutting-edge critique of the intersectionality of oppression and extended their analysis from the internal workings of the organization to society at large. The transformation ushered in by this “revolution within the revolution” was not instantaneous, however. Rather, there was significant struggle within the organization that first led to policy and leadership changes. Once the Young Lords advanced the rejection of machismo in their official platform, it opened space for the emergence of a gay and lesbian caucus and coalitional politics with lesbian, gay, and trans* activists, like Sylvia Rivera. Their intersectional perspective was central, I argue, to a kind of decolonial critical politics that eschewed a focus on rights in preference for attentiveness to and claims for liberation. In this framework, which is also advanced by most scholars of de/coloniality, liberation is an alternative to emancipation—the latter of which relies on claims to recognition that fortify the legitimacy of the modern/colonial system. Liberation, then, seeks a liberty delinked from classical liberalism, mindful of affiliations and fraternal connections, and guided by an ethic of decolonial love, even as colonial wounds can never fully heal.
About the book:
The book summary and a blurb by Andrés Torres can be found on the Temple Press website here: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2346_reg.html
The publicity manager at Temple is Gary Kramer and can be reached at gkramer@temple.edu.
Author/Speaker Short Bio:
Darrel Wanzer-Serrano is an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa.

The Look of Sovereignity
2015-09-24 19:30 - 21:30 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Sept. 24th, 2015 – “The Look of Sovereignity: Style and Politics in the Young Lords”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frances Negrón-Muntaner
Filmmaker, writer, and scholar.
Her work is focused on a comparative exploration of coloniality, primarily in Puerto Rico and the United States, with special attention given to the intersections between race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and politics. She is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University in New York City. She has also contributed to the Huffington Post, El Diario/La Prensa, and 80 Grados, and since 2008 has served as a Global Expert for the United Nations Rapid Response Media Mechanism. She is one of the best-known Puerto Rican lesbian artists currently living in the United States.

¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York.
2015-10-06 12:00 - 19:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Loisaida Inc. presents
¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York.
Dates : July 30th – October 10th
Now extended through December 1st, 2015
Modified hours from October 20th and 22nd – 11am to 3pm
*NEW HOURS*
Tuesday & Thursday (12:00 pm – 7:00 pm) Saturday (12:00 pm – 3:00 pm) All other days are by appointment only. For more information please email info@loisaida.org or call (646) 757-0522
Loisiada Inc. will focus on the Young Lords’ founding and impact in the Lower East Side—displaying rarely seen photographs, posters, and audio and video recordings of live performances. The exhibit begins with the announcement of the founding of the New York Chapter of the Young Lords at Tompkins Square Park on Saturday, July 26, 1969. The exhibition will feature lesser-known perspectives of the Young Lords legacy within the Lower East Side, and their cultural impact upon New York’s cultural scenes. Some highlights include the organizing efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Caucus, the transgender activism of Sylvia Rivera, and innovative “artivism” generated by Eddie Figueroa, the founder of the New Rican Village, an influential multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary art space once located at 101 Avenue A.
Felipe Luciano and Tato Laviera in pre-production planning of the 1st Festival de Loiza Aldea in the LES. Photo by Máximo Colón.
The exhibition is co-curated by Libertad Guerra and Wilson Valentín-Escobar and features many un-published photographs by Máximo Colón and Hiram Maristany, as well as poster art by Sandra Maria Esteves, and rare live video and audio recordings of some of the leading salsa and Latin jazz musicians, plus an art installation commissioned specifically for this exhibition by contemporary artist Adrian “Viajero”Román.
The overall collection of materials depict the critical role that YL members played in the environment that lead to Loisaida becoming a safe refuge for a community struggling for respect, belonging, political power, and public legitimacy.

“I was involved with the Young Lords… it was a time of initiation -into ourselves, into the history of our people, and into the deep images of our culture”.

-Eddie Figueroa, Founder New Rican Village

¡PRESENTE! The Young Lords in New York is co-organized by El Museo del Barrio (July 22 – October 17), Bronx Museum of the Arts (July 2 – October 15) and Loisaida Inc. (July 30 – October 10). The multi-venue exhibition is accompanied by an ambitious range of programs and events to build awareness of the Young Lords’ innovative contributions to the struggle for civil rights and influence on contemporary artists, and to spark conversations about grassroots community activism today. For a limited time only, the first 1000 visitors at each partnering organization will receive a commemorative button, inspired by the Young Lords. Collect them all! For more info, please visit our featured items page.

At Loisaida Inc. ¡PRESENTE! The Young Lords in New York was made possible with support from:

About the Curators:
Wilson Valentín-Escobar, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Sociology at Hampshire College. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in Sociology and Puerto Rican/Latin@ and Latin American Studies Studies from Fordham University. He was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University in 2011-2012. A Brooklyn New York-native, Dr. Valentín-Escobar is currently completing his forthcoming book, Bodega Surrealism: The Emergence of Latin@ Artivists in New York City (New York University Press). The book examines the cultural activism, or “artivism,” of two community-based art communities and projects that originated in the 1970s within the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City: the New Rican Village Cultural Arts Center and El Puerto Rican Embassy. His scholarship, which he regularly presents at national and international conferences, has been published in various academic journals and anthologies, and has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among several others. He, along with the late Dr. Juan Flores, co-edited a special two-volume issue on Puerto Rican music for the Puerto Rican Studies journal, Centro. Dr. Valentín-Escobar currently Chairs the Five College Consortium Program in Latin@, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies.
Libertad O. Guerra is an urban anthropologist, educator, social researcher/historian, independent curator and environmental activist. Her academic research and publications have focused on Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American social-artistic movements and cultural activism in urban immigrant settings. Publications include Uncommon Commonalities: Aesthetic Politics of Place in the South Bronx in Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, (2011); and ‘Building the Aura: a social aesthetics of placement in-the-making.’ in New York / Berlin: Kulturen in der Stadt, (2008). Ms. Guerra has organized numerous local and international exhibitions, panels and conferences among them:
–Loisaida: the Visible/Invisible Body of Puerto Ricans sectors on the Lower East Side to the Downtown scene, PRSA Biennial Conference, (2010).
–Spanic Attack: Living, Making, and Reading the Latin/o American City, LASA Conference, Rio de Janeiro, (2009).
–Re- Membering Loisaida: Lure of the Retro Lens, and Visualizing Hindsight, sponsored by Council Member Rosie Méndez and The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, (2009).
–Noricua: Performing the Living City, The House of World Cultures, Berlin, (2007).
–Going Down for Real: Imagining the Estate of our Town, NYU’s Center for Latino and Caribbean Studies, (2006).
–Constructivismo 2006, Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, (2006).
–La Marginal, Centro Cultural España (CCE) Lima, (2004).
She is Artistic Director of Loisaida Inc., and current curator/event planner of the Loisaida Festival since 2014.
