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Plenazo Parrandero

2/18/2013

PRESS RELEASE
Event: Octavitas Celebration: ¡Plenazo Parrandero! and Tribute to the Legacy of Lucia Mayerson-David
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012 Time:  7 pm
Place: Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Admission:  $25 for Concert, Dance and Dinner
Featuring: Tribute to the Legacy of Lucia Mayerson-David by The Talented And Gifted Latino Program TAG/Alerta programs at UMass Boston’s Institute of Learning and Teaching Jorge Arce and Raíz de Plena – Plena Ensemble, Mista B Style - Salsa master dance instructor, Norma's Catering - Traditional Puerto Rican food.

Start the New Year 2012 with joyous music and dance at the Plenazo Parrandero!  Bring your tambourine, cowbell, voice and güiro and Let’s Plena with Jorge Arce and Raíz de Plena!  Dance with Mista B Styles master Salsa dance instructor. Traditional Puerto Rican food will be provided by Norma's Catering, award recipient for the best food at the 2011 Puerto Rican Festival. This family activity will take place at Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130, on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 7pm.  Admission is $25.00 and includes a dinner.  Supported by The Talented And Gifted Latino Program TAG/Alerta programs at UMass Boston’s Institute of Learning and Teaching, Encuentros de Amigos, Community Arts Advocates, ABCD, Haymarket People’s Fund, Dominican Development Center, Boston Tenant Coalition and El Centro Latino.

This festive gathering will feature a Tribute to the Legacy of Lucia Mayerson-David by The Talented And Gifted Latino Program TAG/Alerta programs at UMass Boston’s Institute of Learning and Teaching. TAG provided educational and mentoring support for children in the Boston Public Schools since the 1980s. TAG and Lucia Mayerson-David were honored and recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House in 2010. http://www.umb.edu/tag

The “Plenazo” is a community activity that has been celebrated in Puerto Rico, New York, Chicago and Boston.  It is framed by the “Plena,” a contagious and appealing Afro-Caribbean music and dance form developed in the working class communities of Puerto Rico. The Plena’s combination of traditional instruments and its characteristic vocal call and response “sung newspaper” has been carried into United States by immigrants in search for better living conditions. Adapted through the years with the addition of trombone, trumpet, clarinet, bass and the Puerto Rican “cuatro” in dance ballrooms, music clubs and the recordings of the legendary Rafael Cortijo and his Combo and the renown singer Mon Rivera; its energy is comparable to the Cuban compares and the Dominican Merengue “Ripiao.”

“El Plenazo” continues to be celebrated in neighborhoods by a multi-generation community.  In Puerto Rico as well as in United States the Plena symbolizes unity, strength and heritage of the Caribbean and Latin America diaspora.

Norma began cooking at the age of six for her nine siblings in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. She admired and learned traditional receipts from her grandmother who crafted foods in the kitchen all day long. Everyone from the town would go to her grandmother's house for lunch and dinner. Norma started cooking for the Puerto Rican festival 22 years ago and many other local events such as the Betances, Cambridge, Boston Jazz, Wake up the Earth, and Vegetarian Festivals. She started catering when her daughter begged Norma to cook for school activities. Lucia Mayerson-David contracted Norma for the her first official catering order for the Talented and Gifted Students (TAG) when her daughter was at Boston Latin School.

Taste "pasteles" with green bananas, pumpkin, yantia, chick peas, raisins and red peppers plus a whole plate of the best traditional Puerto Rican holiday foods by Norma at the Octavitas Celebration on Saturday, January 14th, 2012.

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Plenazo Parrandero

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