Refrescante chorro en la fuente en la Plaza Quinto Centenario

Refrescante chorro en la fuente en la Plaza Quinto Centenario
Originally uploaded by Mr.Frankie.

Festival of New Play Readings

The Puerto Rico Traveling Theater kicked off its Festival of New Play Readings 2008 this month and it will run until May 27. The readings are part of the theater's Playwrights Unit.
Among some of the upcoming plays are "Widows" by Nancy Nevarez, which is about Latinas growing up in the South Bronx in the 1970s and "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" by Carlos J. Serrano about a baseball star who is his own toughest rival. (Note: Click on the image posted here to see the text in larger size of all the readings.)
All readings are free at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, 304 W. 47 St., Manhattan. They are at 7 p.m. After each reading, there is a short discussion with a guest moderator.
For more information, visit www.prtt.org or call 212 354-1293.

Sports

Serrano Urges Selig to Rethink Approach to Developing Puerto Rican Baseball Players

In a letter to Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig sent on Thursday, Congressman Serrano asked Commissioner Selig to reconsider Major League Baseball's policy for signing prospective players from Puerto Rico. In the letter Serrano expressed his opinion that including Puerto Rican players in the regular draft keeps them from having the opportunity to fully realize their potential.
To read more, go to
http://serrano.house.gov/Newsletter.aspx?NewsID=1551#baseball_cont

Source: The Serrano Report

'Fifty Years of Salsa'

Attention: Salsa lovers. The Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, Inc. and William Scribner, executive/artistic director, will present "Fifty Years of Salsa, A Symphonic Odyssey" tomorrow night.

This so-called concert-celebration of the salsa tradition with a twist will be held at the main theater of the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture on the Grand Concourse in the South Bronx. The 7:30 p.m. show will feature Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra and Raymond Torres-Santos, conductor and arranger.

The show will include special guest soloists: Jerry Medina, Tito Allen, Isidro Infante, Nelson González and Ralph Irrizarry.

You will know the songs – Oye cómo va, Pedro Navaja, Anacaona, Así se compone un son, Cara de payaso, Periódico de ayer and many others. The concert promises to be a hit parade of all the tunes you danced back in the day. And, they will be sung and played by some of the great salseros of our times, but in symphonic form, accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra composed of musicians who play with some of the great orchestras of the New York metropolitan area.

Admission with free ticket
Main Theater
Hostos Community College
450 Grand Concourse

For box office and more information, call 718 518 4455.

Poesia, Rumba Jazz Descarga!

Poetry

The NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble will present an evening of bilingual poetry mixed with jazz and Afro-Cuban drumming at the Point’s Live From the Edge Theater in the Bronx tonight.
This ensemble invites the public to come celebrate National Poetry Month as they pay homage to three of our most important and prolific Latino poets: Pablo Neruda, Julia De Burgos, and Mario Benedetti. Actor Luis Enrique Flores and vocalist Wendy Rossi-Fernandez provide a presentation of these poets' love poems accompanied by guitarist Octavio Kotan's rendition of Carlos Almaran's popular Spanish ballad: Historia De Un Amor. The poems will be recited in Spanish and printed translations will be available.
Balancing the ensemble's bilingual repertoire, poet Américo Casiano Jr. presents his award-winning urban poems intermingled with Charles Mingus' Nostalgia in Times Square.
The ensemble also pays tribute to Cuba's Alfredo Abrau of Los Papines with their rendition of Para Los Barrios a rugged Afro-Cuban rumba guaguanco interpreted by percussionist/vocalist Abe Rodriguez and percussionist Gene Golden.
Also performing with NuyoRican School is the "Last Puerto Rican Indian" author Bobby Gonzalez y Encuentro (made up by musicians Joe Falcon (bass) and Eddie Aponte (Saxophone).
NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble is a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to promote the creative literature of Puerto Rican writers in the United States while providing economic opportunities for performing artists of color.
The program starts at 7 p.m. and admission is by donation. Suggested donations are $10 adult, $5 college students and seniors admitted free.
For more information, contact Casiano at 646-281-7038 or e-mail
poetacasiano@yahoo.com.

source: Press Release