CARIDAD DE LA LUZ aka LA BRUJA

Caridad De La Luz is a world renowned spoken word artist known as La Bruja, who began her career at the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe. This year she became the Executive Director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where she began performing in 1996 and she recently won an Emmy for Script Writer of the cultural short: Legacy of Puerto Rican Culture - which aired on ABC during the 2021 National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

CaridadDeLaLuz.com @LaBrujaNYC on IG, Twitter and TikTok

FROM POOR TO RICO

an original production

created and composed by Emmy-award winning artist

Caridad De La Luz AKA “La Bruja”

FROM POOR TO RICO is a theatrical tour de force that offers audiences an opportunity to experience the Puerto Rico Caridad knew as a child growing up between the island and the Bronx, and reflections on Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria through her eyes as an Emmy-winning Nuyorican poet, musician, and storyteller.

Guided by Caridad, From Poor to Rico offers a powerful testament to the richness of Puerto Rican history, culture, and its people. Audiences meet a resilient island waiting to be free from the historical weight of colonization. Caridad envisions a future built on Indigenous – Afro – Taíno - Jíbaro culture and imagination. She dedicates her work to the Puerto Rican diaspora, a love letter to lives lost and to those still surviving. With original poetry, music, and visuals, Caridad invites us ALL to imagine a better future for Puerto Rico.

Dedication

This performance is dedicated to Caridad’s grandmother, recognized as the town nurse who worked out of a medical dispensary for over 40 years in Manati. She was known as having La Mano Santa, a Saint’s hand, because she could administer medicine with a syringe without causing pain or could cure with just a touch of kindness, sweet words and an herbal remedy. She is the only surviving grandparent, still on the island, but whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Maria.

Thanks to: Dr. Jane Gabriels of Pepatian.org, Felix Arrocho, Hostos Center and its theater team, Elaine Del Valle, Del Valle Casting, Dr. Marta Moreno-Vega, Casa Afro & CCCADI, The Poets’ Passage VSJ, Historian Andrés Sanfeliú Cruz @El_Cayito, Oliver Rios, Oriosdesigns.com, Translation assistant Megan Curet, John Leguizamo, Whoopie Goldberg, Danny Hoch, everyone at Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Adan Perez, Allertone Studios, The Theoria Foundation, White Feather Barn, My entire Nuyorican Poets Cafe team, mi familia querida, my supporters and friends.

From Poor to Rico is Caridad’s sixth original full-evening length musical theater production, and is part of a continuum of work, including: Boogie Rican Boulevard, Non-Demonizational Nation, Salsa Bruja, La Consulta, and The BruHaHa Comedy Cabaret..

Credits: From Poor to Rico’s development was funded by the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, as Caridad De La Luz was selected to be part of its inaugural artist cohort, 2019-21. Additional support is provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, support from the Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Bronx Council on the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, and individual contributions to Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative.

Caridad De La Luz (La Bruja)

Caridad De La Luz won an Emmy Award as Script Writer of “Legacy of Puerto Rican Poetry”, a cultural segment that aired on ABC TV during the National Puerto Rican Day Parade 2021. As of January 2022, she became the Executive Director of the Nuyorican Poets’ Café, where she began her artistic career in 1996. She is a multi-faceted writer, performer, composer, and has been one of America’s leading spoken word poets for over 20 years.

She was named in the “Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know” (La Respuesta). Known as a “Bronx Living Legend,” Caridad received a Citation of Merit from the Bronx Borough President and The Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Bronx Historical Society. She has performed at The Apollo, Lincoln Center, Gracie Mansion, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, City Hall in New York City and international venues. Since her 1996 debut performance at the famed Nuyorican Poets Café, she is now its new Executive Director. Caridad is a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a David Prize finalist and is cultivating her own art space in the Soundview area of The Bronx called “El Garaje.” This new full-length work, “From Poor to Rico” is available for presentations and touring.

http://caridaddelaluz.com @LaBrujaNYC on IG/Twitter/TikTok. https://youtube.com/user/caridaddelaluz

photos: Marisol Diaz-Gordon, 2022

FROM POOR TO RICO

Caridad De La Luz / La Bruja

Press Photos Available Here

photo: Marisol Diaz-Gordon, 2022

Performance History

April 29, 2023 - full evening length work produced by Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture with support from Pepatián

January 13, 2023 showcase, produced by Pepatián in partnership with Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture

April 8, 2022, Nuyorican Poets Cafe

February 18, 2022 showcase, produced by Pepatián in partnership with Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture Rep Theater and virtual online conversation Feb 25, 2022.

This theatre work has been supported by the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative, Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, and The Poets Passage of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

PROGRAM: April 29 2023

This one-woman show offers a full arch of storytelling and musical accompaniment that speaks to people from the island and the general public to help all to imagine something more for the island than existing as the 1%’s playground.

Caridad De la Luz: I want to connect with audiences on the island to help them feel spiritually enriched during this time of crisis. I also perform From Poor to Rico for my grandmother who was forced to relocate after Hurricane Maria devastated her home to a nursing home in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. I want to give her the glimpse of the island I knew from spending summers with her as a child in the mountains of Puerto Rico. The visual accompaniment to this performance of my poetic writings and songs is original photography taken on the island in the early 1970s by my father along with my own photographic work.

TECH/PRODUCTION OVERVIEW

From Poor to Rico will tour with one production/tech person and videographer. A tech rider is available upon request.

This work is a one-woman show, performed “club style”, meaning one performer with free range of the stage as well as a stool or seat at center. This work can be presented in any venue from a club to a concert hall. The work will need to use some kind of props accessible to the performer while on stage.

Performed by: Caridad De la Luz AKA “La Bruja”

Key Collaborator: Sound Production, Adan Perez

Audience: General audience

Length in minutes: 75min without intermission (we recommend a 20min intermission)

Images include: Contemporary images of Puerto Rico by Caridad De La Luz. 1972 images of Puerto Rico by Pedro De La Luz & Ronnie Kessler

Community engagement activities include workshops:

.Poetry Writing Basics
.Spoken Word Performance
.Song Writing (Melody, Lyrics and Structure)
.Hip Hop “Bars, Spitting & Cyphers”
.Manifestation, Affirmation and Meditation

Length of workshops can be between 45 minutes - 2 hours. Descriptions available upon request.

CONTACT

caridaddelaluz@gmail.com

Website: https://caridaddelaluz.com/ (in process)
@LaBrujaNYC on IG/Twitter/TikTok

https://youtube.com/user/caridaddelaluz