New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

Lower East Side NYC

NYC’s Lower East Side is a legendary immigrant neighborhood that is becoming a hip art and night club district.

Puerto Ricans call the neighorhood “Loisaida” after Bittman “Bimbo” Rivas’ 1974 Nuyorican poem.

Lower East Side boundaries are:

Houston St
Bowery | Lower East Side | FDR Drive
Manhattan Bridge

Latin Culture in the Lower East Side

Lower East Side Archive

Lower East Side Art

New Museum of Contemporary Art is NYC’s only museum focused entirely on contemporary art.

Lower East Side Dance

Paul Taylor Dance Company

Lower East Side Festivals

Loisaida Festival is a Lower East Side cultural street fair.

Lower East Side Museums

New Museum of Contemporary Art is NYC’s only museum focused entirely on contemporary art.

Tenement Museum

Lower East Side Performing Arts

Abrons Arts Center

The Clemente is a Latin cultural center that hosts Teatro SEA, Teatro LATEA, Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA), and the Fantastic Experimental Latino Theater (FELT).

Lower East Side Restaurants

Mi Salsa Kitchen is a Cuban diner with live entertainment on weekends. 🇨🇺

Lower East Side Theatre

Teatro LATEA is a community theater.

Teatro SEA is NYC’s Latino children theater. It does a lot of puppetry.

Lower East Side News

January 2023

Sueño de Reyes – Dream of Kings; children’s theater that imagines the Three Kings arriving in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico instead of Bethlehem; is at Teatro SEA in Manhattan’s Lower East Side; Saturday-Sunday, December 10-11 & 17-18, 2022 at 3pm; Thursday, January 5, 2023 at 7pm; and Saturday-Sunday, January 7-8 at 3pm. $20 adults/$15 children. 🇵🇷

The Lunar New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival 2023 is a firecracker lighting ceremony with Chinese dance, culture, and food; at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in the Lower East Side / Manhattan Chinatown; on Sunday, January 22, 2023 from 11am – 3:30pm. FREE! 🇨🇳🇰🇭🇰🇷🇰🇵🇯🇵🇲🇳🇵🇭🇸🇬🇹🇼🇹🇭🇺🇸

February 2023

The 25th Lunar New Year Parade NYC 2023 has dragons dancing through Manhattan Chinatown to the Lower East Side on Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 1pm. FREE! 🇨🇳🇰🇭🇰🇷🇰🇵🇯🇵🇲🇳🇵🇭🇸🇬🇹🇼🇹🇭🇺🇸

Miguel Zenón & La Prueba del Ritmo play Afro-Latin jazz in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; in Teatro LATEA at The Clemente Center in the Lower East Side; on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 8pm (7:30pm doors). From $25. 🇵🇷

About the Lower East Side

The neighborhood’s tenements were the first homes for generations of immigrant families. It was once New York City’s “Little Germany.” It became a legendary Jewish community. It’s become a Puerto Rican and Dominican neighborhood and is now gentrifying.

Of all of Manhattan, the Lower East Side retains some of the feel of anything-goes 1970s New York City. It’s mostly visual now in terms of art and graffiti. The New Museum of Contemporary Art changed the neighborhood completely.

Loisaida

Lower East Side NYC (Deberarr/Adobe)
Lower East Side NYC (Deberarr/Adobe)

“Loisaida” is the Puerto Rican name for the neighborhood. It comes from a poem by Nuyorican poet pioneer Bimbo Rivas.

He may have been paying tribute to Yuíza, the legendary cacique (Indigenous Taíno chief) of what is now Loíza, Puerto Rico. By the way, Yuíza was a woman. We have strong traditions of female leadership in both Indigenous Africa and the Indigenous Americas. The similarities between the two cultures are striking.

East Village

The Lower East Side used to run up to 14th St. Above Houston St, it was rebranded as the “East Village” in the 1960s. This was partly due to the development of New York City’s contemporary art community which began in SoHo and moved up to Greenwich Village, then moved east into the Lower East Side.

East Village
Little Italy | Lower East Side | Brooklyn
Chinatown | Two Bridges

Downtown Manhattan