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Latin book festivals, spoken word, libraries, bookstores

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New York Latin Books Features

New York Latin Books Archive

New York Latin Books News

    January 2023

    Black Arts Movement Examined Part III: POETRY (Day 1) explores the written and spoken word in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s-70s at Harlem Stage on Friday, January 27, 2023 at 7:30pm. From $25. harlemstage.org 🌍🇺🇸

    Black Arts Movement Examined Part III: POETRY (Day 2) explores the written and spoken word in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s-70s at Harlem Stage on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7:30pm. From $25. harlemstage.org 🌍🇺🇸

    Remember Arturo Alfonso Schomburg! The Puerto Rican Harlem Renaissance Man who founded the Schomburg Center, one of the world’s preeminent collections of African Diaspora Arts (Black Arts), was born in Santurce, San Juan on January 24, 1874. 🇵🇷

    February 2023

    Remember Langston Hughes. ¡The Negro Speaks of Rivers! The African American Harlem Renaissance jazz poet, was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1901. 🇺🇸

    Remember Frederick Douglass! The African American writer, speaker and statesman who gave Americans our “good-guy” self-concept by holding us to the words of our founding fathers, was born in Maryland in 1818. He celebrated his birthday on February 14. 🇺🇸

    Remember Julia de Burgos. ¡Río Grande de Loíza! The Puerto Rican poet and early women’s rights activist, was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico on February 17, 1914. 🇵🇷

    March 2023

    Remember Gabriel García Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera). “It is life, more than death, that has no limits.” The Nobel Prize winner was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 6, 1927. 🇨🇴

    Celebrate the UN’s World Poetry Day on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. 🇺🇳

    Happy birthday Julia Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, In the Name of Salomé). The Dominican American National Medal of Arts winner was born in New York City on March 27, 1950. 🇩🇴

      Happy birthday Mario Vargas Llosa (La ciudad de los perros, La casa verde, Conversación en la catedral). The Nobel Prize winner was born in Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru on March 28, 1936. 🇵🇪

      April 2023

      Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival is at the Schomburg Center in Harlem on Friday-Saturday, April 14-15, 2023. schomcom.org 🇺🇸🇵🇷

      May 2023

      The Pen America World Voices Festival is usually in May. worldvoices.pen.org

      June 2023

      The 5th Schomburg Center Literary Festival is at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, on Saturday June 17, 2023 from 12-6pm. schomburgcenterlitfest.org 🇺🇸

      August 2023

      [To be confirmed]
      The La Casita Festival of the spoken word, part of Lincoln Center’s Summer For the City festival, is usually in August (August 13, 2022).

      September 2023

      Remember Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote). The author of the first modern novel and one of the greatest works of Spanish literature, was born in Alcalá de Henares around September 29, 1547. 🇪🇸

      October 2023

      [To be confirmed]
      The New Yorker Festival of writers and thinkers is usually in October. festival.newyorker.com

      New York Comic Con is at Javits Center in Hudson Yards, Thursday-Sunday, October 12-15, 2023. newyorkcomiccon.com

      [To be confirmed]
      The 2022 New York Art Book Fair is usually at 548 West 22nd St in Chelsea, in October (October 13-16, 2022).

      November 2023

      Remember Carlos Fuentes (Where the Air is Clear, The Death of Artemio Cruz, Aura, Terra Nostra, The Old Gringo). Mexico’s most celebrated novelist was born in Panama City, Panama on November 11, 1928. 🇵🇦🇲🇽

      December 2023

      Happy birthday Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, This is How You Lose Her). The Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow, was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on December 31, 1968. 🇩🇴

      New York Latin Book Festivals

      The La Casita spoken word festival, is part of the Summer For the City festival at Hearst Plaza in Lincoln Center, and usually at Pregones/PRTT in Concourse, The Bronx in August.

      The Pen America World Voices Festival is usually in May. worldvoices.pen.org

      Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival. schomcom.org 🇺🇸🇵🇷

      The 5th Schomburg Center Literary Festival is in June. schomburgcenterlitfest.org 🇺🇸🇵🇷

      New York Spoken Word Venues

      The Bowery Poetry Club is a spoken word club in NoHo, Manhattan. bowerypoetry.com

      The Bronx Music Hall is a performing arts center that presents spoken word. It’s run by Puerto Ricans, but serves all Bronx communities. 🇵🇷

      The Nuyorican Poets Cafe has a strong spoken word program run by “La Bruja” Caridad De La Luz. 🇵🇷

      Pregones/PRTT presents spoken word at two Puerto Rican community theaters in Concourse, The Bronx and Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan. 🇵🇷

      New York Libraries

      New York City has regional library systems.

      The Belmont Library and Enrico Fermi Cultural Center in the Bronx is one of New York’s biggest Italian libraries. nypl.org 🇮🇹

      The Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, in Midtown East, is New York’s biggest Portuguese library. Facebook @brazilianendowmentforthearts 🇧🇷🇵🇹

      The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is a global French school and cultural center. The John & Francine Haskell Library is New York’s biggest French-language library. fiaf.org 🇫🇷

      Hispanic Society is a research library and museum with the most important Spanish art collection outside of Spain. Most New Yorkers don’t know what we have, but when the collection travels to Spain, people line up around the block to see it. 🇪🇸

      Instituto Cervantes is a global Spanish-language school and cultural center funded by the government of Spain. The Jorge Luis Borges Library is New York’s biggest Spanish-language library. 🇪🇸

      The Italian Cultural Institute in the Upper East Side is a global Italian school and cultural center. The Lorenzo Da Ponte Library is one of New York’s important Italian-language libraries. iicnewyork.esteri.it 🇮🇹

      The King Juan Carlos Center is a Spanish-language research and teaching institution at NYU (New York University). kjcc.org 🇪🇸

      The Morgan Library and Museum was JP Morgan’s (Chase Bank) home and book collection. Its collection includes the original manuscript and art for Saint-Exupéry’s classic “The Little Prince.” It was written in New York. 🇫🇷

      The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts under Lincoln Center is a research library and cultural center for dance, film, music, and theatre. nypl.org

      The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library for African Diaspora arts and literature. It was founded by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938). As a child in Puerto Rico, an ignorant grade school teacher told him he had no culture and no history. Wow! During the Harlem Renaissance, he built one of the world’s preeminent collections of African Diaspora arts (Black Arts). The New York Public Library bought it and made Schomburg its founding curator. That teacher was wrong! 🇵🇷

      New York Latin Bookstores

      • Albertine is a French bookstore at the French Embassy in the Upper East Side. albertine.com 🇫🇷
      • Cafe con Libros is an Afro-Latina bookstore in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. cafeconlibrosbk.com
      • McNally Jackson Books is an independent bookstore with a strong Spanish-language department. mcnallyjackson.com
      • Mil Mundos Books is a Black and Latinx bookstore in Bushwick, Brooklyn. milmundosbooks.com

      About New York Latin Books

      Books in NYC are in the city’s libraries and a few wonderful book stores. New Yorkers seem to read more than people in other cities. The classic New York apartment has a wall of books (or two).

      Literature has a special place in Latin culture. It’s not uncommon for Latin Americans to be able to recite poetry by heart. “Don Quixote” (1605) was the beginning of modern literature. It was the first time a literary character knew he was being written about.

      Spoken word is important in Latin communities. It’s a legacy of Indigenous storytelling, European troubadour, West African griot, and South Asian Roma traditions which are all part of our Latin heritage. In The Bronx, spoken word evolved into rap and hip-hop.

      Promote Latin Books

      Latin book festivals, spoken word, libraries, bookstores