BomPlenazo 2002
A celebration of Afro-Puerto Rican Culture
 

Wednesday, October 9
7 PM                          Festival Opening/Panel-Demonstration, Moderator: Juan Flores
Repertory Theater        BomPlenazo 2002 opens with a panel-demonstration exploring the role of bomba y
Free                            plena in contemporary life in Puerto Rico and New York with musicians, dancers                
                                   and cultural activists Juan Gutiérrez, Norma Cruz, Juan Cartagena, Carlos Torres,  
                                  José Emmanuelli Nater, Tito Cepeda, Roberto Cepeda and Héctor “Tito” Matos.    

Thursday, October 10—Saturday October 12
10 AM – 9 PM            Crafts Market & Exhibition
Atrium                        Master artisans from Puerto Rico and the northeast exhibit and sell their work.
Free                           Food, impromptu music and continuous screenings of bomba documentaries.        

Thursday, October 10
5:30 – 7 PM               
Vejigante Mask-Making Demonstration
Room C391                 Master craftsman Benny Ayala demonstrates making vejigante masks of Ponce
 
Free                        (papier maché) and Loiza (coconut shells). 

7:30 PM                      Viento de Agua, Los Pleneros de Severo and Los Instantáneos 
Main Theater               New York’s high-energy plena fusion group in concert with one of the most
Adm: $15, $12             innovative plena groups in Puerto Rico and the traditional ensemble from Casita
                                  Rincón Criollo in the Bronx.   Click here to see photo album.

Friday, October 11
5:30 – 7 PM                Instrument-Making Demonstration
Room C391                Craftsmen Benny Ayala and José “Chema” Soto demonstrate how to make the
Free                           barriles of bomba and the panderettas of plena. Juan Cartagena moderates.
 

7:30 PM                      Los Pleneros de la 21 and Truco y Zaperoko
Main Theater               “LP21,” New York’s foremost bomba y plena group, under the direction of National
Adm: $15; $12            Heritage Fellow Juan Gutiérrez, and Puerto Rico’s new plena jazz group.
                                  Click here to see photo album.

Saturday, October 12
10 AM                        Bomba Percussion & Dance Workshop
Room C391                Members of the Cepeda family offer a two-hour workshop on bomba dance and
Free                           percussion.
                       

1 – 3:30 PM                Pleneros, Pleneros y Más Pleneros
Repertory Theater       An afternoon of some of the best plena groups in the northeast, including Yerba
Free                           Buena, Segunda Quimbamba, Plena Luna and Viento de Agua Unplugged.

7:30 PM                     Plena Libre and Los Cepedas
Main Theater              From Puerto Rico, composer/arranger Gary Nuñez's stellar plena ensemble which is
Adm: $15; $12           at the vanguard of new plena groups, and three generations of the Cepeda family,
                                 Puerto Rico's pre-eminent practitioners of bomba.
                                
Click Here to see photo album

Sunday, October 13
12 - 6 PM                 Vente-tú (block party/jam) and Plena Contest
Rincon Criollo           An afternoon  of jamming and continuous performances with all the participants of the
                                festival at Casita Rincón Criollo , Brook Ave. & 158 St., Bronx.  Afternoon's activities
                                will include a plena-composing contest among participants in a plena composition and
                                poetry workshop offered earlier in the month by master plenero Hugo Ascencio

  

Tickets & information: 718-518-4455
Orchestra seat package price for all three concerts: $36

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