¡Las Fiestas de Cruz!

Thursday,
May 15 though
Sunday May 17
8PM

Since 1986, Los Pleneros de la 21 have brought this distinct Puerto Rican 200 plus year old celebration to prominence, making it a staple of El Barrio and highlighting the way generations of Puerto Ricans in New York City have embraced this homegrown tradition. The Feast of the Holy Cross is a highly participatory popular celebration in which an audience of all ages and LP21 artists interact in traditional singing and offerings to the cross. Every year, for three consecutive nights in May, LP21 ensemble brings the Julia de Burgos house down, leading a community audience during two exhilarating hours of chanted rosaries.

In the final evening the cross achieves its sublime beauty as it is adorned with ornaments of lace, flowers and candles.  The event ultimately climaxes with a LP21 band’s electrifying performance and the audience in devotion and celebration responds intense singing. The rosary concludes and the  dance begins, as the audience joins LP21 in a farewell to the cross until next year’s celebration.

Las Fiestas de Cruz, made possible in part with funds from New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, City Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito, District 8.

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