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The 31st Annual Loisaida Festival is only a day away!
Loisaida, Inc. is proud and thrilled to once again bring together our community of artists and cultural creatives to produce this iconic Festival, and we are thankful for the huge support from our sponsors, staff, volunteers, and participants.
Below you will find a taste of what's in store on the Festival's entertainment line-up. Get ready to experience expressions of music from the
Puerto Rican Plena, Salsa, Charanga, Merengue, Cuban Guajira, to Reggaeton
& Hip Hop, and more!
The Festival day, Sunday the 27th, kicks off at 11am with its historic Loisaida Community Parade filled with costumed participants from the neighborhood that will muster at the Dry Dock Park on 11th street and Avenue D and proceed to the main stage area where they will parade east on 10th Street back to Avenue D and south to 6th Street and then west to Avenue C, and up the Loisaida Avenue back to the main stage to gather, celebrate, and at 12pm, officially open the Festival Program of lively music, dance, and entertainment.
From noon until 5pm, enjoy the Festival's street fair along the Loisaida Avenue corridor of family-friendly activities, rides and games, piña coladas, delicious multi-ethnic cuisine,
artesanias, and more. Concurrently, spectacular talent will be performing on the
Main Stage (12th Street and Avenue C), as well as at the Festival's TheaterLab in La Plaza Cultural Community Garden on the SW corner of 9th Street where an entire program of artists, performers and presentations will occur. See the TheaterLab line up below.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST YEAR'S MAINSTAGE
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The Loisaida Festival 2018 Theme..
BRIDGING RESURGENCE:
FROM SANDY TO MARÍA
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The Loisaida Festival 2018 Poster
The Festival poster has been a tradition since 1987. This year's poster was designed by the Puerto Rican illustrator and artist, Gustavo Castrodad. It illustrates some of the most important and consistent elements of the Festival that are featured this year: the colorful Community Parade, Loisaida pleneros and musicians, recycled flowers by Rolando Politi, poets
like Jorge Brandon aka El Coco que Habla, and the iconic Adela Fargas of Casa Adela. The Festival's theme: Bridging Resurgence...From Sandy to Maria is beautifully represented and expressed through the incredibly positive and joyous images bringing together and connecting, in solidarity and love, the Loisaida community and the communities on the Island post-Hurricane Maria.
A limited number of posters will be on sale at the Festival.
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MAIN STAGE HOSTS: JEANNIE SOL & FLACO NAVAJA
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Jeannie Sol
is a member of Teatro Sea Children's Theater in NYC. A Prominent singer, actress, comedienne, she is a renowned performer having traveled the globe with the World famous Fania-Allstars with Celia Cruz, Ray Barreto, Eddie Montalvo, and Johnny Pacheco to name a few.
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Flaco Navaja
is a
fixture of the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café and star of both HBO's Def Poetry Jam and the Tony-winning Broadway tour of the same name, Navaja has a way with words that is second only to his way with a song.
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Kinto Zonó is a new Plena music ensemble bringing back the original "Quinto Sonó" songs of the street Plena group founded by Sammy Tanco in the 1970's Lower East Side. T
he new band was formed in 2017, under the direction of Nelson "Mateo" Gonzalez (who grew up at Rincón Criollo), Jorge "Georgie" Vazquez, and George "Nate" Velasquez. Kinto Zonó is an 11-piece ensemble consisting of two brass, piano, bass, and full-on percussion bringing the sounds of Puerto Rico with a modern twist and a New York style of playing
plena and bomba
. Their mission is to keep the musical tradition of Puerto Rico alive and fresh with a New York attitude
and flavor.
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EDUARDO ALEGRIA and DESMAR GUEVARA
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Singer and composer Eduardo Alegría and his group Alegría Rampante made their recording debut in 2015 with the release of
Se Nos Fue La Mano (Discos Diaspora), a collection of songs partly concerned about the deterioration of the Island and the effects of the economic crisis. At the end of 2016, the band took a masterful show to the stage of the historic Teatro Tapia in Old San Juan.
Desmar Guevara is the Musical Director of the Award-winning Bronx based theater ensemble, Pregones Theater and PRTT. He has been pivotal in developing an original musical theater repertory that employs traditional Afro Puerto Rican instruments in unfamiliar and highly stylized settings. He is recipient of a 2002 National Theater Artist Residency Program Award from the Theater Communications Group and the Pew Charitable Trusts, a 2003 BRIO Award in Composition from the Bronx Council on The Arts, and a 2004 "Individual Artist Fellow" recipient from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
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M.A.K.U Soundsystem, based in New York City, are the innovators of immigrant beat, a unique sound that encompasses their immigrant experience. On stage M.A.K.U juxtaposes traditional Colombian percussion, drum-set, electric bass, guitar, and vocals to create an explosive performance filled with unshakable grooves. Born in 2010 the band has independently released two full-length albums, one EP, and toured across the U.S. with their fiery grooves. The band releases their new EP "Cinco Fuegos," this summer.
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Palladium Mambo All Stars keep the Palladium era alive featuring music
ians that have played with all the Latin Legends. The Palladium All Stars have played at Bryant Park, Salsa Mondays at Taj, 2017 Taino Towers Festival and the Brooklyn Salsa Congress at Lincoln Center. This 14-piece band will surely make you dance!
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FLACO NAVAJA and THE RAZORBLADES
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There is a good reason why singer. Flaco Navaja, has the heart of a poet - he is one. A fixture at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café and star of both HBO's Def Poetry Jam
and the Tony-winning Broadway tour of the same name. An equally passionate performer in English and in Spanish, Navaja has an electric presence on stage, especially when backed by his band, The Razor Blades, a red-hot outfit complete with congas, timbales, keys and a killer horn section. Be present when this Bronx native brings his unique blend of nostalgic sounds with brand-new spoken word to the Downtown!
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See you at the Loisaida Festival on Sunday, May 27th! Bring your family, friends, and neighbors!
The Loisaida Team
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710 E. 9th Street New York, NY 10009
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Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved, Loisaida Inc.
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