For this centennial celebration of the Cuban “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz, three contemporary Cuban artists assemble in Central Park to channel her spirit and honor her legacy. Isaac Delgado is a salsa singer from Havana who’s performed with Orquesta de Pacho Alonso and NG La Banda. The latter group—which he helped found—helped to popularize the then-nascent Cuban genre of timba, a sound that blends with salsa, American funk, R&B, and Afro-Cuban folkloric music. He’s recorded as a solo artist and bandleader since the ‘90s; his latest album Lluvia Y Fuego comprises original tunes as well as tributes to Benny Moré and Cheo Feliciano. The singer, pianist, composer, and actress Aymee Nuviola—aka “La Sonera del Mundo”—is a decorated artist with multiple GRAMMYs and Latin GRAMMYs under her belt. She’s also connected with Celia Cruz in a more literal sense, having played her in the Colombian telenovela Celia. Cuban singer and multi-instrumentalist Brenda Navarrete is an accomplished percussionist, distinguishing herself as an expert on the Bata. A long-standing member of Interactivo, a Havana-based musical collective led by the pianist Roberto Carcassés, she has also worked with the Afro-Cuban percussion troupe Obini Bata, a woman-founded group first formed in the early 1990s.
It’s My Park at Street Tree
Manhattan
Volunteer with 136th St. Green Initiative & Community Enhancement Association to paint the tree guards of 136th St.
Free
