Nos Quedamos - WE ARE MELROSE 2023 - July 8th from Noon-6pm | Artist Spotlight

 

As We Stay/Nos Quedamos, Inc. prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming Saturday, July 8, 2023 (from Noon to 6PM), appropriately theme "WE STAYED: And Flourished. NQ 3.0 - Past, Present & Future," we wanted to whet your appetite by highlighting the amazing artists, healers, and cultural performers participating in our annual 2023 WE ARE MELROSE Community Festival. The creative and diverse lineup includes storytellers and face-painters for young audiences, healers, poets and spoken word artists, and dance troupes and musical performers. The event will kick off with a special non-denominational spiritual blessing that leads to a street naming in honor of Nos Quedamos officiated by Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, Jr. Download Flyer. The daylong celebration also includes a street naming ceremony in NQ's honor, as well as the 2023 Harvesting Culture Awards that recognize Bronxites whose dedicated contributions have made the Melrose Commons section of the Bronx and extended borough a better place for all (including a dynamic emerging trailblazer). This incredible community-based celebration is taking place at your favorite public community space Yolanda García Park (dedicated to the memory of Nos Quedamos' founder and first executive director). We look forward to sharing with you this coming Saturday—ALL ARE WELCOME!!

EVENT HOSTESS/MC

CARIDAD DE LA LUZ, a.k.a. “La Bruja,” is the Hostess/MC for this year's WE ARE MELROSE Community Festival. She is a Nuyorican (a New York-born Puerto Rican) poet, playwright, actress and activist. She is considered one of the leading spoken word poets in the world. In 2005, El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York City, named De la Luz as one of the “Fifty Most Distinguished Latinas in the United States.” De la Luz made her debut as an artist in 1996, when she first took the microphone at the Nuyorican Poets Café and received a standing ovation. She has also shared her work on HBO’s Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam, and at the American Museum of Natural History. In 2022, she won an Emmy as Script Writer for Legacy of Puerto Rican Poetry on ABC, a cultural short produced in Puerto Rico. De la Luz lives in the Bronx.

EVENT BLESSING

ZAYDA RIVERA is the founder of Mindful Living with Z, which she launched in 2019 following a near-death experience. After more than a decade of practicing meditation and yoga, Z answered the call to take a deeper dive in healing modalities to heal herself and others. JOSÉ ORTIZ (DR. DRUM), is a nationally highly acclaimed professional on-stage performer, educator in Pan-African, Caribbean and Latin culture and is a self-taught percussionist of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Dr. Drum is known as one of the Top National Afro Rican Bomba Artists.

STORYTELLERS AND POETS

MARÍA APONTE is a Poet/Author/Performance Artist/ Community Arts Activist/Educator. Two-time recipient of the International Latino Book Award. A 2021 honoree Bronx Book Fair for Community Service and Literary Excellence. Through poetry and storytelling Maria will engage the audience in positive healing through the spoken word on the importance of discovering your inner spiritual self to celebrate change and accepting the new. How do we learn from our abuelas and mothers the importance of keeping traditions alive and present to give us a foundation to plant and replant our seeds of joy.

JESÚS “PAPOLETO” MELÉNDEZ, also known as “Papo”, or “Papoleto”, (born June 13, 1950) is a New York-born Puerto Rican poet, playwright, teacher, and activist. He is a member of the Nuyorican Movement. He grew up during the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power movement, and the emergence of the Nuyorican Movement in East Harlem. His titles include the play The Junkies Stole the Clock (1974), and Hey Yo/Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry. His honors include a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Louis Reyes Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award, an Artist for Community Enrichment Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts, and a joint fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and Combined Arts of San Diego. Melendez lives in New York City.

BONAFIDE ROJAS is a poet, musician, artist, performer, and teacher, was born in New York on October 8, 1977. Although he spent part of his childhood in Levittown, Puerto Rico, Rojas was raised in the Bronx. In 2018, Rojas received the BRIO Award for Poetry from the Bronx Council on the Arts. In 2022, he was named an inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellow by the Flamboyan Foundation. Rojas resides in the Bronx & only wears red socks.

CULTURAL PERFORMERS (MUSIC AND DANCE)

KINTO ZONÓ  was formed in 2017, under the direction of Nelson “Mateo” Gonzalez (who grew up at Rincón Criollo in the South Bronx), Jorge “Georgie” Vazquez, and George “Nate” Velasquez. Kinto Zonó is an 11-piece ensemble consisting of two brass, piano, bass, and full-on percussion bringing the sounds of Puerto Rico with a modern twist and a New York style of playing plena and bomba. Kinto Zonó had the privilege to share stages such as Plena Libre, Bobby Sanabria, El Gran Combo and many more. Their mission is to keep the musical tradition of Puerto Rico alive and fresh with a New York attitude, and Kinto Zonó is in the forefront of these new musical innovations.

MAZARTE DANCE COMPANY is inspired by traditional Mexican dances and brings its folklore back to life, combining dance, research and indigenous art. Our work honors the cultural vastness of Mexico as they embody the fusion of Mexico’s old and new as part of Mazarte’s mission to preserve these dances for the community and generations to come. MazArte endeavors to create a union between dance, research and indigenous art to promote our Mexican cultural heritage, bring history to life and produce educational programs to our communities. We want to expand cultural awareness and an appreciation that will nurture diversity and inclusivity.

CHIEF JOSEPH CHATOYER DANCE COMPANY is committed to showcase Garifuna culture with an educational experience that involves drumming, singing and dancing as a means of preserving and raising awareness about our cultural heritage, language, history, and multiple-task dance forms. The Garifuna folkloric ballet company was founded in February 2009 in New York City with eight members, and named to honor the legacy of a brave Garifuna men who fought fearlessly against the European influence in defense of our territories in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and received a positive and overwhelming reception from our Garifuna community, especially from the younger generations who embraced our traditions as a connecting point to its related historical and cultural legacy.

MARIACHI REAL DE MÉXICO was founded in 1991 by Ramon Ponce and his son Ramon Ponce Jr. This year Mariachi Real de Mexico is proudly celebrating 31 year. Mariachi Real de Mexico is considered to be the ambassador of Mariachi music and the most important and sought after mariachi ensemble in New York City and the North East of the United States.

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Event Info