Miguel Algarin News

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe will commemorate its 40th Anniversary with a range of new multi-arts performances, retrospective events and infrastructure upgrades. Beginning with preview events this summer, the Cafe's 40thAnniversary season will showcase the work of dozens of poets, playwrights, actors, musicians, burlesque performers, multimedia artists and educators.

Lucas Papaelias, of Broadway's ONCE is set to join the line up of the previously announced 17th annual LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS. Papaelias is also known as LPfunK and is an actor/guitarist/composer who was nominated for a Drama Desk Award (Best Original Music in a Play) for his work in Adam Rapp's "Essential Self-Defense" at Playwrights Horizons. Most recently, he co-wrote the rock musical PYRAMIDICA: Songs of Freedom, which takes place live in a pyramid scheme company's "free" orientation, and was presented at the Vineyard Arts Project's New Writers / New Plays Festival. He also conceived of, and composed, the rock opera ITHACA: a Perpetual Shredfest, the story of a Lower East Side rock band performing their final concert, which had presentations at Joe's Pub and ARS Nova.

THE LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS celebrates its seventeenth year of bringing together under one roof, in just three days, over 100 performing arts organizations, local and international celebrities, independent artists, poets, playwrights, musicians, puppeteers, film makers and many others - all of whom reside, work or have their roots in the culturally diverse, willfully anarchistic Lower East Side - for New York City's most diverse FREE 3-day festival, from Friday, May 25 through Sunday, May 27, at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between E. 9th and 10th Sts.) in Manhattan. OBIE Award-winning actress Crystal Field is co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City.

The Off-Broadway production, 'Growing Up Gonzales,' written and directed by Felix Rojas, performed by Andres Chulisi Rodriguez, has been extended through March 31, 2012 at The Jan Hus Playhouse, 351 E 74th Street between 1st & 2nd Avenues.

The artistic children of Marvin Felix 'Pancho' Camillo (d.1988), founder of The Family theatre, are making a resurgence right now. Three Family 'cousins' -- Felix Rojas, Antone Pagan and Camillo's son, Marvin Felix Camillo, Jr. -- are hard at work rekindling the Family Theatre's legacy.

'Honor & Fidelity: The Ballad of a Borinqueneer,' a multi-character solo show written and performed by stage and screen professional Tanya Perez, will be presented during a three week limited engagement in NYC at the Drilling Company Stage, January 7th-22nd.

Growing Up Gonzales by Felix Rojas, performed by Andres Chulizi Rodrigues, opens Off-Broadway January 26 at Jan Hus Playhouse.

THE 16th ANNUAL LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS brings together under one roof in just three days over 100 performing arts organizations, local and international celebrities, independent artists, poets, playwrights, musicians, puppeteers, film makers and many others - all of whom reside, work or have their roots in the culturally diverse, willfully anarchistic Lower East Side - for New York City's most diverse FREE 3-day festival, from Friday, May 27 through Sunday, May 29, at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between E. 9th and 10th Sts.) in Manhattan. OBIE Award-winning actress Crystal Field is co-founder and Artistic Director of Theater for the New City.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010. The Poetic Heritage Festival celebrates the work of distinguished artists - including Miguel Algarin, Ishmael Reed, Amiri Baraka Sandra Maria Esteves and Ntozake Shange - who are closely associated with the creation and history of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This festival is made possible in part by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces Program. All events in the Poetic Heritage Festival will take place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's multi-arts performance space at 236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B and C. For further details and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.nuyorican.org/ or call 212-780-9386.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010. The Poetic Heritage Festival celebrates the work of distinguished artists - including Miguel Algarin, Ishmael Reed, Amiri Baraka Sandra Maria Esteves and Ntozake Shange - who are closely associated with the creation and history of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This festival is made possible in part by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces Program. All events in the Poetic Heritage Festival will take place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's multi-arts performance space at 236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B and C. For further details and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.nuyorican.org/ or call 212-780-9386.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010. The Poetic Heritage Festival celebrates the work of distinguished artists - including Miguel Algarin, Ishmael Reed, Amiri Baraka Sandra Maria Esteves and Ntozake Shange - who are closely associated with the creation and history of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This festival is made possible in part by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces Program. All events in the Poetic Heritage Festival will take place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's multi-arts performance space at 236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B and C. For further details and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.nuyorican.org/ or call 212-780-9386.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010. The Poetic Heritage Festival celebrates the work of distinguished artists - including Miguel Algarin, Ishmael Reed, Amiri Baraka Sandra Maria Esteves and Ntozake Shange - who are closely associated with the creation and history of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This festival is made possible in part by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces Program. All events in the Poetic Heritage Festival will take place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's multi-arts performance space at 236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B and C. For further details and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.nuyorican.org/ or call 212-780-9386.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents the Poetic Heritage Festival, a retrospective series of poetry, theater and music events during the fall and winter of 2010.

THE 15th ANNUAL LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS will bring together under one roof in just three days a multitude of performing artists - actors, dancers, singers, painters, sculptors, playwrights, performance artists, poets, etc. -- all of whom reside, work or have their roots in the culturally diverse, artistically rich Lower East Side -- for New York City's most diverse FREE 3-day festival, from Friday, May 28 through Sunday, May 30, at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between E. 9th and 10th Sts.) in Manhattan.