The 35th Loisaida Festival is taking it back to our streets on Avenue C (Avenida Loisaida) in the East Village, rain or shine, on Sun, May 29, 2022 from 12-5pm. loisaida.org 🇧🇷🇨🇺🇵🇷
Loisaida Festival 2022
The Loisaida Festival 2022 offers street food and artisanal crafts with live entertainment on several stages. The Festival is also being broadcast on cable on Loisaida TV hosted by actors Gilberto Gabriel and Andrés López-Alicea. loisaida.org
Location
The 2022 Loisaida Festival is on Avenue C (between 5th & 12th St) in Alphabet City in the East Village. It’s free.
Opening Ceremony
The Festival starts with a a procession led by Batalá NYC, New York City’s All-Woman Afro-Brazilian Samba Reggae marching band at 11:30am.
Loisaida Festival Main Stage
On the main stage David “DASO” Soto and Andre “Redstar” Cirilo host performances by some of the hottest acts in the Caribbean. There is Salsa, Bomba, Plena, Guaracha Cubana, and Hip-Hop in all sorts of fusions:
Kinto Zonó Bomba & Plena @kintozono 🇵🇷
Amigos de la Cultura Bomba @amigosdela-cultura 🇵🇷
Son del Monte (Manny Rivera) Charanga & Conjunto (Salsa) @sondelmontemusic 🇵🇷
El Hijo de Borikén Hip-Hop (backed by El Laberinto del Coco Bomba Fusion) @elhijodeborken 🇵🇷
Lulada Club All-woman, Salsa, Boogaloo & Global Music @luladaclub 🇨🇴
Theatre Lab
The Theatre Lab on Avenue C at 9th St in La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez presents theatrical workshops with Dorill Initiative, Jeannie Sol, Gabriel Torres, Circo Café con Gloria, Latino Commission on Aids and more.
Play:Ground NYC
Play:Ground NYC leads a Kids Activation Run from 1-3pm.
9C Community Garden
The Community Garden at 9th St features music by Conjunto Los Fascinantes and a rest area for seniors.
2022 Viva Loisaida Award
The Loisaida Festival recognizes the community service of Adam Weinstein (Phipps Houses), Beatriz De La Torre (Trinity Church Wall Street), Robert Lamb (Grand Street Settlement), Charity of Light “The Witch” (Nuyorican Poets Café), and Carlos “Chino” Garcia (CHARAS).
Lots More
Acacia Network is offering vaccinations and other services. There are activations by Bio Bus, Bombayo NY, Mulato PR, Adrian “Viajero” Roman, Felix Morelo and more.
The Festival is incredibly diverse which is a perfect mirror of Loisaida.
Festival of New York
This year’s Festival marks the start of the Festival of New York which makes 2022 a great year in The City. festivalofny.com
Loisaida Center
The Loisaida Festival was founded by the Loisaida Center community organization in 1987.
The Many Meanings of Loisaida
The Festival is actually in Alphabet City in the East Village which used to be called the Lower East Side.
Puerto Ricans call the area “Loisaida” in reference to a famous poem by a beloved Nuyorican poet. The name is a word play on Lower East Side and Loíza Aldea, the town with the strongest African Diaspora culture in Puerto Rico. Loíza Aldea was founded by Free Africans. It’s the leading center of Bomba Puertorriqueña, our African Diaspora drum, song and dance tradition. It’s the home of the Batey Ayala, the most sacred Bomba space in Puerto Rico.
(By the way, Bomba means pump, not bombs. And Bomba and Plena are completely different traditions, though they do come from the same communities in Puerto Rico.)
Loíza Aldea is named for a Taíno cacique, a woman who was the leader of the Indigenous Taíno in the area.
So the name Loisaida is filled with meaning, just as life the East Village and Lower East Side are.