Caridad De La Luz aka La Bruja
full video available upon request: pepatian@gmail.comn
Caridad De La Luz, La Bruja
Emmy-award winning artist
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 Caridad De La Luz
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. Her home was destroyed by Hurricane Maria.
FROM POOR TO RICO - 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.
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.
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.
CONTACT: caridaddelaluz@gmail.com
https://youtube.com/user/caridaddelaluz
@LaBrujaNYC on IG/Twitter/TikTok
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.
