Bronx Dominican Parade es el Gran Parada Dominicana de el Bronx, Quisqueya
GRAND CONCOURSE, Concourse, Claremont, Mount Hope, The Bronx 🇩🇴
Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) Brings Alt Rock Fusions to NYC
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, Times Square, Manhattan
DROM, East Village, Manhattan
CENTRAL PARK, Manhattan
SOBs, Hudson Square, Manhattan
🇨🇴 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇭🇰 🇮🇹 🇲🇽 🇵🇦 🇵🇷 🇪🇸 🇻🇪 🇻🇪
DJ Lobo Spins a Fourth of July Salsa Dance Party in Greenwich Village
GONZALEZ Y GONZALEZ, Greenwich Village, Manhattan 🇩🇴
Aventura and Romeo Santos Play One Last Round of Urban Bachata Together at Madison Square Garden
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, Chelsea, Manhattan 🇩🇴
Yasser Tejeda in New York City, Afro-Dominican Alternative
GENERAL GRANT NATIONAL MEMORIAL, Riverside Park, Morningside Heights, Manhattan 🇩🇴
Queens Dominican Day Parade Marches Through Jackson Heights
JACKSON HEIGHTS, Queens 🇩🇴
José Alberto “El Canario” Plays the New York Salsa Festival
BARCLAYS CENTER, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn 🇩🇴
New York Salsa Festival is a Night of Salsa Legends
BARCLAYS CENTER, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇵🇷 🇻🇪
Drums Along the Hudson is a Native American Powwow and Multicultural Celebration of Drum, Song, & Dance
INWOOD HILL PARK, Inwood, Manhattan 🇩🇴 🇮🇳 🇲🇽
South Bronx Cultural Festival Celebrates Casita Maria’s 90th Anniversary with Arturo O’Farrill, Eddie Palmieri, Bobby Sanabria, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Lots More
FATHER GIGANTE PLAZA, Longwood, The Bronx 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇱 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇭🇹 🇭🇳 🇲🇽 🇵🇷
Blue Note Jazz Festival Kicks Off Summer in New York City
BLUE NOTE Greenwich Village, Manhattan
BROOKLYN BOWL, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
SUMMERSTAGE Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER Columbus Circle, Manhattan
SONY HALL Times Square Theater District, Manhattan
THE TOWN HALL Midtown, Manhattan
🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇪🇹 🇭🇹 🇲🇽 🇳🇪 🇳🇬 🇵🇷
Loisaida Festival 2024 Kicks Off Summer in Alphabet City “Loisaida”
AVENUE C, East Village, Manhattan 🇧🇷 🇩🇴 🇵🇷
Dominican Culture Sponsors
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Dominican Culture News
Dominican New York City
New York has been Dominican since our first immigrant, Juan Rodríguez set up NYC’s first bodega (store) in 1613.
As of 2019, we are New York City’s largest Latin community.
New York’s Little Dominican Republic is in Washington Heights. Dyckman St is a popular Dominican street. We also live in the West Bronx.
Dominican Art in NYC
There is a Juan Pablo Duarte statue at Duarte Square in Hudson Square (West SoHo), Manhattan.
Scherezade Garcia is a New York Dominican painter who captures the vibrance of Dominican life. scherezade.net
Dominican Books in NYC
Juan Pablo Duarte (1813-1876), the founding father of the Dominican Republic, was a writer.
Julia Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, In the Name of Salomé)
Junot Díaz is a Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, This is How You Lose Her).
Dominican Comedy in NYC
Gastor Almonte is known for “Immigrant Made.”
Ian Lara is on HBO.
Dominican Cultural Centers in NYC
Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center is in Washington Heights. Facebook
Club Deportivo in Washington Heights has casual salsa dancing on Friday nights.
Dominican Dance in NYC
Club Cache is a night club in Greenwich Village with a Friday night Bachateame party. clubcachenyc.com
Club Deportivo in Washington Heights has casual salsa dancing on Friday nights.
Gonzalez y Gonzalez is salsa night club in a Mexican Restaurant in Greenwich Village. It occasionally hosts merengue and bachata.
Latin Mondays at Taj in the Flatiron District is a salsa party with some merengue and bachata.
La Boom is a night club in Woodside, Queens where you can dance urban merengue, bachata, dem bow.
Dominican Education in NYC
CUNY has a Dominican Studies Institute ccny.cuny.edu
Dominican Fashion in NYC
Hernan Lander is a Dominican fashion designer. 🇩🇴
Oscar de la Renta set the standard for American elegance with his Dominican heritage and Spanish training. 🇩🇴
Albania Rosario didn’t speak English when she came to New York as a young woman, but built Fashion Designers of Latin America (formerly Uptown Fashion Week) into part of New York Fashion Week. She’s now global. 🇩🇴
Dominican Festivals in NYC
National Dominican Day Parade is New York’s big Dominican festival.
Dominican Heritage Month New York, from January 21 to February 27, is one long celebration of La Virgen de la Altagracia, Dominican Independence Day, founding father Juan Pablo Duarte’s birthday, and Dominican Carnival.
Dominican Film in NYC
Dominican Film Festival New York screens the best Dominican films of the previous year. It is usually in November.
Dominican Food in NYC
- 809 in Washington Heights is popular with the Dominican community.
- Bocaditos Bistro is an upscale restaurant in Washington Heights.
- El Castillo de Jagua (Lower East Side) @castillodjaguanyc
- Malecon is in Washington Heights and the Upper West Side.
- Mamajuana Cafe is an anchor of Washington Heights.
- Republica in Washington Heights has a nice rooftop.
- Santiago’s Beer Garden
Dominican Government in NYC
- Adriano Espaillat is U.S. Representative for New York’s 13th Congressional District (2022). He is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. Congress. espaillat.house.gov
- The Dominican Consulate is in Times Square.
- Ydanis Rodriguez is Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation (2022). nyc.gov
Dominican Music in NYC
Aventura is the Dominican band that popularized urban bachata. 🇩🇴
Romeo Santos is a Dominican bachata star who came up with Aventura. 🇩🇴
Venues:
- Barclays Center urban bachata.
- Bronx Music Hall occasionally presents Dominican music.
- Harlem Stage Afro-Dominican alternative.
- Hostos Center merengue.
- United Palace, Washington Heights, is Upper Manhattan’s big theatre.
Dominican Parades in NYC
The Bronx Dominican Parade es el Gran Parada Dominicana de el Bronx in Concourse, The Bronx, in July. 🇩🇴
The National Dominican Day Parade is New York’s big Dominican festival. It’s in August. 🇩🇴
The Queens Dominican Day Parade marches through Jackson Heights, Queens; in June. 🇩🇴
Dominican Sports in NYC
The New York Mets has some great Dominican players.
Dominican Theatre in NYC
ID Studio Theater in Mott Haven, The Bronx, has a Dominican Executive Director, Sandie Luna.
Repertorio Español presents some Off-Broadway theatre based on Dominican literary classics.
Dominican Culture
Dominican culture is a vibrant mix of Indigenous Taíno, Spanish, and African culture with Japanese and Lebanese influences. The mix of all these influences is what makes Dominican culture and the Dominican people so beautiful.
Quisqueya
“Quisqueya” is one of the Indigenous Taíno names for the island of Hispaniola. It means “mother of all lands.” The island was in fact, the Taíno heartland.
Merengue
We like to say that there is more to the Dominican Republic than merengue, bachata, and beaches. That is true, but the sound of the tambora used in merengue is present in most Dominican music, including merengue, bachata, son Dominicano, and dem bow. The tambora is the heart of Dominican music. It’s a two-sided drum played with one free hand and a curved stick, just like the talking drums in West Africa.
If you want a Dominican to dance, just put on a merengue. Dominican hips will immediately start swinging in the motion that freaked out the colonizers. Only Dominicans and Haitians move their hips like that. In Caribbean music, food often has double meanings. When it’s good, all that swing makes merengue.
Merengue has a 2/2 rhythm. Since we have two feet, it is one of the simplest Latin dances. Although to dance merengue really well still takes a lot of practice.
Bachata
Bachata is sort of Dominican bolero. Originally called “amargura” (bitterness), it is Dominican country music. Many of the songs are about unrequited or lost love.
We like this video because it reflects where bachata lives, and this couple are beautiful dancers. There’s the colmado (market) which is the center of Dominican life. The family is hanging out drinking Dominican beer, while cooking sancocho (stew) on a fogón (open fire). People get up and dance. Some dance great, some not, but it doesn’t matter. This is Dominican family life.
Bachata uses a 4/4 rhythm so it’s easy to dance to many types of music, including rock. When you see the “electric slide” in the Caribbean, it’s actually bachata.
This video is bachata sensual dancing to urban bachata music. Bachata sensual came from Spain. It blends bachata, salsa, and even tango. Hear the sound of the tambora ~ even in urban bachata? Urban bachata came from New York City.
Son Dominicano
Don’t confuse son Dominicano with son Cubano, which became salsa in New York. Forget your salsa moves. They confuse son Dominicano dancers, and they won’t dance with you.
Son Dominicano has a more Antillean feeling (we think it’s a Haitian influence). The dance is all about connection between the couple and the energy is in the feet, just like Argentine tango. In fact, this videographer goes by the name “Son Tango.” As tango dancers, that caught our attention. The showiness seems to be in the man’s feet like in Argentine milonga (a predecessor of tango).
Dem Bow
Dem bow is Dominican reggaeton from Capotillo 42, one of the toughest barrios in Santo Domingo. This video promotes thug life. Sorry, but welcome to Capotillo. Making the hand sign of a gun is “la trenta” (the 30), a symbol of dem bow. We think it may derive from hand signs for 4 and 2 (the 42).
We don’t support drugs or violence, but the music and dance are great. We spent a night in Capotillo 42 at a teteo (street party) and only saw barrio friendship, barrio love, great dancing and style.
One of the interesting things about dem bow is that it has the clave rhythm in it. Most Dominican music doesn’t. The dancing shows influences of many folk dances from Mother Afrika.
“Dirikirikiriki, Dikiri.“