Loisaida Inc.

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

Performing Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Cabaret
2015-05-22 20:00 - 22:00 UTC | 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

Pa' la calle!! - Theatre Workshops for the Community
2015-05-22 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

Taller de Plena Mayagüezana - 2nd Round
2015-05-16 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-05-09 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-05-02 14:30 - 16:30, 2015-04-25 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

Community Screen Printing Workshops
2015-05-11 18:30 - 20:30, 2015-05-09 14:00 - 16:00 | 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.

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

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

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)
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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
2015-04-18 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

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!

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

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!

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.

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

Taller de Plena Mayagüezana Pt. 1
2015-02-07 14:00 - 17:00 | 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.

Ferguson/Ayotzinapa: CantoMundo Poets Read and Respond
2014-12-15 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The Loisaida Center
presents:
Ferguson/Ayotzinapa: CantoMundo Poets Read and Respond
featuring:
Yesenia Montilla Peggy Robles-Alvarado Rio Cortez Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Rosebud Ben-Oni and Urayoán Noel

This event brings together New York-based current and former fellows of the national Latina/o poets workshop CantoMundo (cantomundo.org/) to read from their work in solidarity with ongoing protests and mobilizations in and around Ferguson, Missouri, and the College of Ayotzinapa in Iguala, Mexico.Many of the poets reading are also participating in #CantoMundoLongestNight, a social-media offering of poems in honor of the countless black and brown bodies slain by state-sanctioned violence.
Darrel Alejandro Holnes is from Panama City and the former Canal Zone of Panamá. His poetry has been published in Poetry Magazine, The Best American Experimental Writing, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, The Potomac, MEADE, Lambda Literary, Assaracus, Weave Magazine, The Feminist Wire, The Paris American, Kweli, featured on The Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere in print and online. He is the co-author of PRIME: Poetry & Conversations (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014). He is a proud CantoMundo and Cave Canem fellow. darrelholnes.com
Yesenia Montilla is a New York City poet with Afro-Caribbean roots & CantoMundo Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in the literary journals: 5 AM, Adanna, Wideshore and others. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation. Her first collection of poetry The Pink Box is forthcoming from Willow Books in Fall 2015.
Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is a CantoMundo Fellow and the author of SOLECISM (Virtual Artists Collective, 2013). Her work is forthcoming or appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Arts & Letters, Bayou, Puerto del Sol, among others. Rosebud is an Editorial Advisor for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts (vidaweb.org). Find out more at 7TrainLove.org
CantoMundo fellow Urayoán Noel is the author of the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa, 2014) and several books of poetry in English and Spanish, including EnUncIAdOr (Editora Emergente, 2014) and the forthcoming Buzzing Hemisphere/Rumor Hemisférico (University of Arizona). Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he lives in the Bronx and teaches at NYU.

La TRIFECTA: Benefit Party of Loisaida Center's first trimester of new programming!
2014-12-13 20:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
La T R I F E C T A

Saturday, December 13th from 6:00pm – 11:00pm

at The Loisaida Center -710 E 9th Street and Avenue C

6:00pm
(M)others’ Politics Performances: A documentation of Jeca Rodríguez-Colón’s maternal characters captured by Ricardo Alcaraz, Ben Lundberg, Marlène Ramirez- Cancio, Linda Duvall, Mariángel Gonzales and Deborah Dudley. Curated by Alejandro Epifanio.

8:00pm
ZOETROPE: Excerpts of Part 1 and 2 by: Caborca Theatre Co. A glimpse of Caborca’s most recent work -developed here at Loisaida Center during our Theater Company. residency program.

9:00pm
Buscabulla (Spanish slang for troublemaker) is the music project of Puerto Rican designer and Brooklyn resident, Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo Del Valle.Heavily influenced by vintage Latin music like salsa gorda, Cuban psych and ’80s Argentinian rock, the project combines both electronic and live instrumentation.

DJ sets by: Gabo Lugo!

*Exhibition will open at 5:30pm. Entrance is FREE before 7:30pm. Admission is $12 after 8:00pm and includes one gift before9:00pm. Keep your receipt for the after-party…

City & Media in the work, life and afterlives of Julia de Burgos
2014-12-11 19:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Medios & Ciudad en el trabajo, vida y post-vidas de Julia de Burgos
With the participation of : Lena Burgos Lafuente, Monxo López, Oscar Montero, Urayoán Noel and Vanessa Perez Rosario
Proud to present an all-star panel of specialists on De Burgos and diasporic poetry, part of the public programming for La Casita de Julia – a commissioned multimedia installation by Dey Hernandez Vazquez now on view.

2014 Artist in Residence - Jeca Rodríguez-Colón
2014-11-24 08:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
The Loisaida Center is proud to announce our current
2014 Dance-Theater Residency Recipient:
Jeca Rodríguez Colón
Rodriguez is currently in the development stages of a piece with the working title:
(M)others.

About the piece:

The piece has four female characters, all women, 2 of which are ghosts or memories from the family of the main character, one character who is the mother of the main character and the main character. Through their movements and their occasional dialog the audience will be able to witness how the invasion of the United States of America influenced and affected each of this mothers. Some were affected directly by the lack of education, others by the alcoholism and abuse of her veteran husband and the others by the unspoken past of their mothers.

About Jeca:
Jessica “Jeca” Rodríguez-Colón is a Puerto Rican performer with over 12 years of experience as a dancer and choreographer. She began her contemporary dance training with Petra Bravo and Viveca Vázquez. She holds a B.A. from Hunter College with a double major in Dance and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She was the recipient of Hunter College’s 2005 Choreography Departmental Award. Jeca is an MFA candidate at Transart Institute with Plymouth University. After participating in the EMERGENYC 2013 program at the Hemispheric Institute she began to explore performance arts and public interventions. Her work is connected to different aspects of the maternal kinesthetic language in space and the politics that surrounds it. She is currently part of inaugural cohort of The EmergeLab@BAX, a laboratory initiative with the support of the Hemispheric Institute and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Her latest work includes a street intervention in collaboration with Mette Loulou von Kohl “Manifest Collective Movement”, a future installation “Sneak into My Maternal Chaos” and future performance “Desde Adentro” to be presented August 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

Making Music with Everyday Objects
2014-11-22 15:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Making Music with Everyday Objects
Join the amazing and dynamic musical duo Acopladitos for an interactive musical experience as you create your own musical instruments using recycled materials during an exiting music/art making session. This 90-minute workshop will be structured in the format of Loisaida Center’s one-time specialized workshop or talk program the X-Change Express.
Acopladitos will demonstrate how to make a variety of musical instruments using everyday objects, especially those found at home. They will share with the audience their playful approach to the idea of “sound explorations.” More than making your own instruments, Acopladitos will share some musical ideas to guide the audience through a creative composition process that the entire family can practice at home. The last portion of the talk consists of a “hands on” approach to music making where the audience will have the opportunity of playing the instruments.
Acopladitos is dedicated to teaching Spanish language through music and movement to young learners.
This events is open to a general audience, but will specifically benefit early childhood teachers and parents.
We hope you can join us and help us spread the word!

About Acopladitos:
Acopladitos is a Spanish immersion music program for young children. The word “acopladitos” in Spanish can be translated to mean “being together in complete harmony” and refers to much more than just music. The program is designed to cultivate the child’s first musical encounters through singing, creative movement, music-making, games and dramatic play. A presentation by Acopladitos incorporates charming original songs with a repertoire of popular Latin American children’s songs. Designed and led by composer Angelica Negrón and ethno-musicologist Noraliz Ruiz, the program was created to fill a void in early childhood Spanish-language music education in NYC. This team of Brooklyn-based experienced educators and creative artists will engage the children in a collaborative and exciting musical experience that will nurture their artistic, intellectual, physical and social-emotional development. We are interested in collaborating with Loisaida Center in order to bring fun and interactive programming to the children of Loisaida and reach out to the community at large.

My Body, My World - Veraalba Santa
2014-11-22 13:00 - 16:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
In My Body, My World with actress and dancer Veraalba Santa:
We will explore how our bodies move and react to our immediate and imaginary surroundings using fun and energetic movement exercises and music.
Ages 8-12
Saturday, November 22nd at 2:30pm
About:
Veraalba Santa is currently an artist in residence at the Loisaida Center and part of Caborca Theatre Company.

InVisible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam
2014-11-17 20:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
InVisible Movement:
Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam

¡Gracias to all who joined us for the book release!
September 17th, 2014 @ 7 PM
Poet and scholar Urayoán “Ura” Noel, an Assistant Professor of English and Spanish at NYU, presented his new book InVisible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa Press, 2014), the first book-length critical study of Nuyorican poetry.
Discounted copies of the book are still available for sale.

“A crucial contribution to our literary history, In Visible Movement charts the evolution of an increasingly visible movement in the literary arts, shedding light on many related poetries of the past six decades in the process. Noel proposes ‘an understanding of poetry performance as revisionism: operating across and along page and stage,’ an understanding that proceeds from the poets themselves.”
—Aldon Lynn Nielsen, author, Integral Music: Languages of African American Innovation

About the author:
Urayoán Noel is a poet, performer, scholar, and translator who is currently an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Albany and Visiting Assistant Professor of English at NYU. His books include the poetry collections Kool Logic/La lógica kool (Bilingual Press, 2005), Boringkén (Ediciones Callejón/La Tertulia, Puerto Rico, 2008), Hi-Density Politics (BlazeVOX, 2010), and Los días porosos (Catafixia Editorial, Guatemala, 2012), and the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam(University of Iowa Press, forthcoming). His other works include the performance DVD Kool Logic Sessions(Bilingual Press, 2005, with Monxo López), the multimedia project The Edgemere Letters (2011, with Martha Clippinger), and, as translator, the chapbooks ILUSOS by Edwin Torres (Atarraya Cartonera, Puerto Rico, 2010) and Belleza y Felicidad (Belladonna, 2005). He has been a fellow of CantoMundo, the Bronx Council on the Arts, and the Ford Foundation, and his creative and critical writings have appeared in Latino Studies, Contemporary Literature, Small Axe, Bomb, Fence, and in numerous national and international anthologies. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Urayoán Noel earned his B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, his M.A. from Stanford, and his Ph.D. from NYU. He lives in the Bronx.

Muchas Julias / Many Julias
2014-11-15 20:00 - 22:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
Muchas Julias / Many Julias
The first multimedia production by the new Loisaida Center!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The new Loisaida Inc Center, in association with the Society of the Educational Arts, inc. (SEA), proudly presents:
Muchas Julias / Many Julias as part of the Borimix: Puerto Rico Fest.

In this multi-disciplinary event, art enlivens a space long known to harvest projects and services of great importance for the Latino community, the original Loisaida, Inc. building at 710 9th Street & Ave C, in the Lower East Side.
This time is the poetry of the great Julia de Burgos, whose centenary we celebrate this year, presented in five (5) distinct pieces representing different disciplinary approaches; in Muchas Julias / Many Julias visitors will stroll through the extensive premises of the new Loisaida Center to stop only at determined points and intimately experience the aesthetic pieces (from dance to theater, from film to installation), all inspired by the work of Julia de Burgos, one of Latin America’s greatest poets
Conceived by Yaraní del Valle, Muchas Julias / Many Julias is a site-specific montage that features the participation of artists and scholars such as: Oscar Montero, Deymirie Hernández, Gabo Lugo, Caborca Theater,Right Minded Creations, JecaRodríguez, Veraalba Santa and Tres Tristes collective.
Venue: 710 E 9th Street and Avenue C
Date: Saturday November 15, 2014
Time: 7:30 pm
(Presentations will begin at 8:00pm)
Price: $10 suggested donation (Help Us Grow)

Click to RSVP for this event.

Sponsored in part by:

Isla No Isla
2014-11-09 16:00 - 21:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

ISLA NO ISLA

A Sunday Reading with:
Uráyoan Noel (Puerto Rico), Omar Pérez (Cuba), Edwin Torres (New York City)

BIOS:

Urayoán Noel teaches at NYU and is the author, most recently, ofEnUncIAdOr (Editora Educación Emergente, 2014) and the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam(University of Iowa Press, 2014). A former CantoMundo and Ford Foundation fellow, he has two books forthcoming: Buzzing Hemisphere / Rumor Hemisférico (University of Arizona Press) and a bilingual edition of the poetry of Pablo de Rokha (Shearsman Books). He lives in the Bronx and is the poetry editor of NACLA Report on the Americas.

Omar Pérez has consistently translated from the English, Italian, French and Dutch languages. He has published, among others, a (Cuban) Spanish version of Shakespeare ́s As You Like It: Como les Guste; a translation of Dylan Thomas ́s Collected Poems; an anthology of XX Century Italian poetry (L ́Antimelancólico), a collection of Anglophone African poetry (Mágicos Intervalos) as well as (Lo que es) an anthology of Dutch verse. Numerous translations of poems, short stories and novels from the above mentioned languages, have been publishedin Cuba and abroad.

Omar Pérez has collaborated in the theatre, both as an actor and musician. He has thus participated in festivals such as Villa e Castelle, Regione Marche, Italy, 1996, or Bienal de Danza del Caribe, Havana, 2008 and 2010.
He has interacted with several actors, musicians and dancers in plays, performances, happenings in Cuba and Europe.
As a poet, Pérez has participated in festivals such as Poetry International, Rotterdam, 2002, and Festival de Poesía de Medellín, in 2006.

Edwin Torres is the author of many poetry collections, including most recently “Ameriscopia” (University of Arizona Press). He’s the founder of The Noricua Movement and has been a leaky fixture in the New York City poetry community for over two decades. Eleni Sikelianos writes, “Edwin Torres shatters the definition of Latino into a million little pieces.” He has an ebook forthcoming in 2015 from (Tuiteratura Ediciones, Spain) entitled “ePOWM!”

FREE!!!
Starts at 4:00PM

Taller de Educación Infantil
2014-11-08 08:00 - 17:00 | The Loisaida Inc. Center, 710 East 9th Street, New York, NY, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

TALLER DE EDUCACIÓN INFANTIL
WITH CLINICAL/EDUCATIONAL PSYCOLOGIST; CARMEN VÁZQUEZ

Early Childhood Educational Workshop For Spanish speaking Caretakers

Certificados de Capacitación serán otorgados a todos los participantes.
Certificates of Completion will be provided to all participants
(5 hours for one day and 10 hours for both days).
Saturday and Sunday Nov. 8th and 9th from 10:00AM – 4:00PM
+ FREE FLU SHOTS AND BLOOD PRESSURE TESTS WILL BE ADMINISTERED
10AM-1PM SATURDAY ONLY +

BIO:

CARMEN VÁZQUEZ is a Clinical /Educational Psychologist: with above 30 years of experience in learning processes, child challenging behaviour modification, learning disabilities and clinical psychology within the Educational Department of Puerto Rico, consultant, university professor and private workshop facilitator.

$12 each day.*
*Zip-discounts available for residents of 10009-10002

Temas a Cubrirse:

* Desarrollo Socio-emocional 0-6 años
* Modelo Piramidal para Fomentar la Competencia Socio-Emocional
* Transiciones efectivas entre actividades
* Alfabetización Emocional
* Identificación y Expresión de Sentimientos
* Solución de Problemas
* Habilidades de amistad
* Estrategias Visuales
* Apoyo Positivo de la Conducta (PBS)
* Historias Sociales

Site-Specific Theater (Workshop)
2014-10-25 20:00 | La Plaza Cultural, 700 E 9th Street, New York, 10009, United States
THE LOISAIDA CENTER
IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE:

Part of The Loisaida Center’s XChange Express program.

SITE-SPECIFIC THEATER:
Create stories based upon a specific site or location!!!
with Caborca Theatre

Join Javier Antonio González, Playwright and Artistic Director of Caborca Theatre Company, in this unique workshop where the magical and inspiring setting of La Plaza Cultural Community Garden serves as point of departure for creation.
Caborca Theatre- One of the four theater companies chosen to represent the Latino avant garde theater of NYC at the event; Encuentro 2014, the largest national festival of Latino theater in more than two decades.
Website : http://www.caborcatheatre.org/
Site-Specific Theater Workshop
Time: Saturday October, 25th. at 1:00pm
Duration: 90 minutes
Instructor: Javier Antonio González, Playwright and Artistic Director of Caborca Theatre Company
About Caborca:
Led by playwright/director Javier Antonio González, CABORCA is an experimental theatre company making plays that move seamlessly between the irreverent and poetic, the personal and political, and the highly entertaining and intellectually challenging – inspired by Brecht’s view that to be challenged is also to be entertained. Based in New York City and working in both English and Spanish, our work includes new plays, classical adaptations and devised creations. We began working together in 2002 at the University of Puerto Rico, continued collecting at Columbia’s MFA Theatre Program, and officially became a company in 2009. CABORCA steals its name from the novel The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño, in which a magazine of the same name is the official organ of visceral realism.
