• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Search
  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • Art
  • Dance
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Brazilian Culture in New York City

Brazilian Culture in New York City is mostly in architecture, baile funk, bossa nova, forró, música popular brasileira (MPB), sertanejo, and soccer


NYC Restaurant Week (Anton Harets/Dreamstime)

NYC Restaurant Week 2026 is a Great Time to Try Latin Food with Family and Friends

Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇳🇭🇰🇲🇴🇸🇬🇹🇼 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇵🇭 🇫🇷 🇮🇳 🇮🇪 🇮🇹 🇯🇲 🇲🇽 🇵🇪 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇺🇸

Film at Lincoln Center Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (Keith Widyolar/New York Latin Culture Magazine)

Film at Lincoln Center is One of NYC’s Leading Film Presenters

“Iracema” (Iracema, uma transa amazônica, 1974) 🇧🇷
“The Secret Agent Network” (O Agente Secreto, 2025), Brazil Oscar Entry, Wagner Moura 🇧🇷
Cinema Tropical Awards 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇻🇪 🇺🇸
New York Jewish Film Festival ✡️
“The Hunger: Film Writing, 2012-2024” Melissa Anderson book signing + “Trenque Lauquen” screening 🇦🇷
Plus 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🌍 Film Festivals

LINCOLN CENTER, Upper West Side, Manhattan

Cinema Tropical Awards (Sven Hansche/Dreamstime)

Cinema Tropical Awards 2026 Recognize the Year’s Best Latin American and American Latin Films

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER, Manhattan 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇻🇪 🇺🇸

Three Kings Day NYC (Iakov Filimonov/Dreamstime)

Three Kings Day in New York City 2026

January 6 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇲🇽 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇻🇮

Oscars, Academy Awards (Elliott Cowand/Dreamstime)

Oscars 2026 Academy Awards Best International Feature Film Submissions Trailers

DOLBY THEATRE, Hollywood, California and ABC-7 🇦🇷 🇧🇴 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇷 🇩🇴 🇪🇨 🇫🇷 🇭🇹 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇵🇹 🇷🇴 🇸🇳 🇿🇦 🇪🇸 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 🇺🇾 🇻🇪

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack and Dancers (Andrew Eccles/AAADT)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Starts a New Era with Artistic Director Alicia Graf Mack

NEW YORK CITY CENTER, Midtown, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇬🇫

FIFA World Cup 2026 (UJ Alexander/Adobe)

FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw Sets Up Soccer Matches in the USA, Mexico, and Canada

North America 🇨🇦 🇨🇼 🇭🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇺🇸
South America 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇪🇨 🇵🇾 🇺🇾
Africa 🇩🇿 🇨🇻 🇪🇬 🇬🇭 🇨🇮 🇲🇦 🇸🇳 🇿🇦 🇹🇳
Europe 🇫🇷 🇵🇹 🇪🇸

Indigenous NYC, Maria Tallchief (Everett Collection/Adobe)

New York City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” Started The American Holiday Tradition With a Native American Ballerina

DAVID H. KOCH THEATER, Lincoln Center 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇵🇭 🇵🇷 🇪🇸

African Diaspora International Film Festival NYC (Lvnel/Adobe)

African Diaspora International Film Festival NYC Screens the Many Faces of Mother Afrika Around the World

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
CINEMA VILLAGE, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
🇧🇪 🇧🇷 🇧🇫 🇨🇲 🇨🇦 🇹🇩 🇨🇱 🇨🇼 🇩🇴 🇪🇬 🇪🇹 🇫🇷 🇬🇭 🇬🇵 🇬🇾 🇭🇹 🇮🇳 🇯🇲 🇲🇱 🇲🇶 🇲🇦 🇳🇬 🇳🇿 🇵🇪 🇼🇸 🇿🇦 🇹🇳 🇺🇬 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🇺🇾 🇿🇲 🇿🇼

World Ballet Day (Andriy Bezuglov)

World Ballet Day is a Behind-The-Scenes View of a Day in Life of the World’s Leading Ballet Companies

STREAMING 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 🇧🇷 🇨🇦 🇨🇺 🇳🇱 🇫🇷 🇵🇷

Sotheby's New York Breuer Building (Jjfarq/Dreamstime)

Sotheby’s November Art Auctions in Its New Breuer Building Include Basquiat and Kahlo Masterpieces, and Cattelan’s Gold Toilet Which is a Gift Fit for a King

Leonard A. Lauder Collection 🇫🇷 🇪🇸
Surrealist Art 🇲🇽
Now & Contemporary Art 🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇭🇹 🇵🇷
Modern Art 🇧🇷 🇨🇺

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan

American Ballet Theatre, Cassandra Trenary & Herman Cornejo in Wheeldon's "Like Water for Chocolate" (Marty Sohl/ABT)

American Ballet Theatre Celebrates Twyla Tharp, Presents a Juliano Nunes World Premiere, and a Gala Tribute to Misty Copeland

DAVID H. KOCH THEATER, Lincoln Center, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇳 🇫🇷 🇰🇷 🇪🇸

More Brazilian Culture

New York Brazilian News

El Museo del Barrio is NYC’s Caribbean and Latin American Art Museum

Jangueando: Recent Acquisitions, 2021-2025 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇲🇽 🇵🇪 🇵🇷

EAST HARLEM “El Barrio,” Manhattan

Birdland Jazz Club is One of New York City’s Legendary Jazz Clubs

Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks vintage hot jazz, Mondays & Tuesdays 🇮🇹
Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Sundays 🇨🇺

HELL’S KITCHEN, Manhattan

Zinc Bar Latin Jazz in an Underground Greenwich Village Jazz Club

Melvis Santa & Jazz Orishas, Afro-Cuban jazz 🇨🇺
Axel Tosca & Xiomara Laugart, Afro-Cuban timba, trova, and jazz 🇨🇺
Valtinho Anastácio, Brazilian bossa nova 🇧🇷
Santi Debriano Bembé Arktet, Panamanian jazz 🇵🇦
Marta Sanchez Trio, Spanish jazz 🇪🇸

GREENWICH VILLAGE, Manhattan

Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater is an Eclectic Music Supper Club

Plena Libre contemporary Puerto Rican plena 🇵🇷
Bibi Ferreira música popular brasileira (MPB) 🇧🇷

NOHO, Manhattan

Coney Island Amphitheater Latin Concerts By the Sea

Andy Montañez, Charlie Cruz, People of Earth, DJ García, Puerto Rican salsa 🇵🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇺
Federation Sound Jamaican dub 🇯🇲
Beres Hammond Jamaican reggae 🇯🇲
Freestyle Beach House Puerto Rican freestyle 🇵🇷

CONEY ISLAND, BROOKLYN

Museum of the City of New York Celebrates 100 Years

“We Are Still Here!” Lunaapeew/Lenape Celebration Weekend 🇺🇸

Byzantine Bembé, New York by Manny Vega 🇵🇷 🇧🇷

“EL BARRIO” EAST HARLEM, Manhattan

National Museum of the American Indian New York

Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes, Native American superhero site-specific installation
Native New York
Infinity of Nations, art
Ancestral Connections, contemporary Native art draws on the past

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, Manhattan

Whitney Museum of American Art is Redefining American Art History

Whitney Biennial  🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇦 🇨🇱 🇩🇴 🇸🇻 🇮🇳 🇯🇲 🇲🇽 🇳🇬 🇵🇪 🇹🇹
Edges of Ailey art of Alvin Ailey 🇺🇸

MEATPACKING DISTRICT, Manhattan

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is One of the World’s Great Modern, Contemporary, Film, and Latin Art Museums

Carolina Caycedo: Spiral for Shared Dreams, Colombian, Mexican environmental installation 🇨🇴 🇲🇽
Doc Fortnight documentary film festival 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇬🇵 🇭🇹 🇵🇷
Crafting Modernity, Design in Latin America, 1940-1980, Argentine, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan interior design 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇲🇽 🇻🇪
New Directors New Films film festival 🇨🇱 🇧🇷 🇪🇸

MIDTOWN, Manhattan


Brazilian New York City

New York City’s Brazilian communities are centered in Midtown and Astoria, Queens. Metro New York’s biggest Brazilian community is in Newark, New Jersey.

New York City’s “Little Brazil” is 46th St between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown, Manhattan.

The Brazilian Consulate is in Murray Hill, Manhattan.

Brazilian Architecture in NYC

The main United Nations architect was Oscar Niemeyer, the renowned modernist who also designed the Brazilian capital Brasília.

Brazilian Art in NYC

Mendes Wood DM gallery

Nara Roesler gallery

United Nations campus lead architect was Oscar Niemeyer. He also designed the Brazilian capital, Brasilia.

Marguerita Bornstein was a famous Brazilian illustrator and cartoonist living in Brooklyn.

Brazilian Dance in NYC

Capoeira is a traditional Brazilian dance/martial art. When the colonizers said we couldn’t practice fighting, we said, we’re just dancing.

Dance Theatre of Harlem has some great Brazilian ballet dancers.

Brazilian Fashion in NYC

Geova makes incredible handmade fashion in the East Village. When you walk into the room in Geova, everyone turns and looks at you. @geova208

Brazilian Festivals in NYC

Brazilian Day is produced by João De Matos.

Brasil Summerfest is the biggest Brazilian music festival, outside of Brazil.

Brazilian Food in NYC

  • Brigadeiro Bakery
  • Casa
  • Churrascaria Plataforma
  • Emporium Brasil
  • Fogo de Chão
  • Ipanema
  • Via Brasil

Rio Market is a Brazilian market in Astoria, Queens.

Brazilian Music in NYC

Nublu is a night club in the East Village owned by a Brazilian.

SOB’s Sounds of Brazil is a night club in Hudson Square that presents some Brazilian music.

Azul NYC is a samba drum line.

Batalá New York is a samba reggae drum line.

Bebel Gilberto lives part of the time in New York City.

Forró in the Dark is a New York forró fusion band.


Brazilian Culture

Brazilian Culture in New York City is a reflection of Brazil’s Indigenous, Portuguese, and African Diaspora cultures.

Traditional Brazilian culture includes Candomblé, capoeira, carnival, choro, and samba.

Contemporary Brazilian culture includes bossa nova, música popular brasileira (MPB), forró, sertanejo, baile funk, and soccer.

Candomblé is one of the African Diaspora religions that rooted in the Americas. It sprouted samba, bossa nova, and jazz.

Quilombos were free African towns in the countryside.

Brazilian telenovelas are popular throughout Latin America.

Samba

Samba in New York City (Stefano Ember/Dreamstime)
Samba in New York City (Stefano Ember/Dreamstime)

Brazilian Classical Music

The most famous Latin American classical music composer, is the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Popular Celebrations in Brazil

  • Dia dos Enamorados, Brazilian Valentines Day, is June 9.
  • Festa de São João (Festa Junina) celebrates the birth of St John the Baptist on the eve of June 24. In Europe, it’s a midsummer festival. In Brazil, it’s a midwinter festival. Both traditions celebrate by lighting bonfires and jumping over them as a cleansing ritual.

Brazil

Brazilian Culture in New York City (Samy St Clair/Dreamstime)
Brazilian Culture in New York City (Samy St Clair/Dreamstime)

Brazil is South America’s biggest country. It has the world’s largest African Diaspora population.

Public Holidays in Brazil

Public holidays say something about each country’s character.

  • New Year’s Day is January 1.
  • Carnival Tuesday is a public holiday. The date varies.
  • Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Christ. The date varies.
  • Easter is the Christian spring festival. The date varies.
  • Tiradentes Day commemorates the execution of Brazilian national hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier on April 21, 1792. He led the first major revolt against Portuguese rule. He was a dentist. That’s why the holiday is called “tooth-puller” day.
  • Labour Day (International Workers Day) is May 1.
  • Corpus Christi celebrates the Catholic tradition of symbolically eating God’s body and drinking his blood.
  • Brazilian Independence Day is September 7, 1822.
  • Our Lady of Aparecida Day celebrates Brazil’s patron saint with a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida in Aparecida, São Paulo, Brazil, on October 12.
  • All Soul’s Day, the Catholic tradition of tending family graves, is blended with Indigenous and African traditions, on November 2.
  • Republic Day celebrates the coup d’état that established the Brazilian Republic on November 15, 1889.
  • Christmas Day is the Christian solstice celebration on December 25.

Famous Brazilians

Alceu Valença

Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote The Girl From Ipanema

Assad Brothers from Brazil are the best guitar duo alive

BaianaSystem + Hamilton de Holanda + Xênia França

Bispo do Rosário: All Existing Materials on Earth, Brings Brazilian Outsider Art to Americas Society

Brazil National Football Team Made the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar Quarter-Finals

Bruno Miguel ‘Seduction and Reason’ from a Brazilian point of view

Caetano Veloso “Meu Coco” Brings the Brazilian Tropicalia and MPB Legend to New York City

Campana Brothers ‘Hybridism’ is Brazilian art furniture made from scrap

Clarissa Bruns Sings a Samba for George Floyd

Eliane Elias, the Grammy-winning Brazilian Jazz Pianist, Starts Her “Time and Again Tour”

Gilberto Gil is a Samba, Rock, Bossa Nova, MPB Legend

Heleno

Hélio Oiticica To Organize Delirium ask one of the great Brazilian artists

Lygia Pape Brazilian Artist “A Multitude of Forms” (Review)

Nation Beat Plays Brazilian Maracatu Forró Funk Jazz Fusion at Flushing Town Hall

Paulo Laport

Pia Camil: Here Comes the Sun

Rodrigo Santoro

Saint Clair Cemin ‘Oedipus’ Brazilian sculpture at Paul Kasmin Gallery

Sandy e Junior, the Brazilian MPB & sertaneja superstars, are back!

São Paulo Dance Company debuts at The Joyce

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra Carnegie Hall Debut Features Rimsky-Korsakov & Villa-Lobos

Sebastião Salgado makes striking photographs of our changing planet

Seu Jorge and Daniel Jobim Pay Homage to the Iconic 1962 Bossa Nova Concert at Carnegie Hall

Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe

Sylvio Perlstein Collection “A Luta Continua” at Hauser & Wirth

Tom Zé is a Tropicália and Brazilian Bossa Nova Legend

Tulipa Ruiz in New York City

Vik Muniz ‘Epistemes’ at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

Vik Muniz: Museum of Ashes


Published September 5, 2024 ~ Updated September 5, 2024.

Filed Under: South American NYC

Subscribe

Get New York Latin Culture Magazine weekly in your email. We don’t share, rent, or sell addresses. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Footer

Search

Things to do in NYC

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

New York City

NYC, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island ~ New Jersey

Latin Music and Dance

Bachata, Ballet, Cumbia, Classical, Flamenco, Hip Hop, House, Jazz, Merengue, Modern Dance, Opera, Pop, Reggaeton, Regional Mexican, Rock, Salsa, Samba, Tango, World Music

North American

African American, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican

Caribbean

Cuban, Dominican, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Trinidadian

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuelan

African

African American, Nigerian, South African

European

French, Portuguese, Spanish

Follow

X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, YouTube, TikTok

Subscribe

Get New York Latin Culture Magazine in your email

advertise

Sponsor

Details

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.

Copyright © 2012–2026 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we assume you are ok with it.