Since 1987, the annual Loisaida Festival has highlighted the neighborhood’s diverse heritage and vibrant spirit with a packed afternoon offering live music, art, performances, food vendors, and over twenty local artisans. The festival includes activities for children and families, such as BioBus mobile science lab, a story-time presented at the community garden, screen-printing workshops by the Robert Blackburn Printmaking shop, basketball hoops and drills, and bouncy houses among many other activities, all free of cost.
This year’s 38th edition is dedicated to the memory of Marlis Momber, who passed away earlier this April at the age of 82. Momber was a German immigrant to New York and an accomplished photographer whose iconic 1978 documentary, Viva Loisaida, captures the triumphs and challenges the neighborhood’s residents, artists, and activists face.
Borrowing from the name of Momber’s film, The Loisaida Festival annually presents its Viva Loisaida! Awards to a new slate of honorees each year, recognizing individuals for their community leadership and cultural contributions.
Live music on the mainstage throughout the afternoon will include performances from Sonido Consteño, Joe Bataan, Anissa Gathers, Ana Macho, Alma Moyo, and Legacy Women The mainstage will also feature a classical cellist and opera singer performing the piece, Loisaida, My Love, an original composition by the GRAMMY-winning Jessie Montgomery. A former student of the neighborhood’s Third Street Music School, Montgomery drew inspiration for her piece from the work of poet Bimbo Rivas, a Puerto Rican-born Loisaida resident and celebrated community leader of the 1970s and 80s.
Elsewhere along Avenue C, attendees can visit the Festival’s TheaterLab in La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez on E. 9th Street. Across the street, attendees can visit the Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden for live música típica puertorriqueña performed by old timers conjunto Los Fascinantes y Yotoco throughout the afternoon. There will also be a street-level collaboration between the Nuyorican Poets Café and BombaYo. Partner organization BioBus will also park along Avenue C. and E. 9th Street. Its mobile pop-up lab allows children and families to engage with scientific equipment and experiments in community science.