NYC LGBT
fromCurbed
3 hours agoWhat Is Ballroom Legend Leiomy Maldonado's NYQ?
Leiomy embodies the quintessential New Yorker with practical subway etiquette and a love for local food spots.
"Most dance studio education in the U.S. still starts with ballet and works towards recitals. But historically, hundreds of distinct dance traditions emerged from cultures around the world long before ballet became the norm in European courts."
Discos Resaca approaches Cumbia as living art in constant evolution, deeply rooted in heritage. Founded in 2017 by accordionist and producer Ivan Flores, the collective has carved out its own space through live shows and limited vinyl runs, centered on hybrid Cumbia reflective of the region's diverse Latine communities.
The Bandera Cimarrona, a flag conceived at the first edition of the International Summit of Afro-descendants in Puerto Rico in 2022, stands as a symbol of the resistance, the pursuit of freedom, and the strength of Afro-descendants on the island and throughout the Americas.
When your plane descends into Puerto Rico's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, it will likely fly low over the colorful buildings of Santurce, a sprawling district famous for its creative residents and Afro-Caribbean influences. Neglected for decades, Santurce is rapidly reclaiming its title as one of San Juan's most exciting quarters - a transformation that has earned it the nickname "The Brooklyn of Puerto Rico." And if you're looking for Afro-Caribbean cuisine, you're coming to the right place.
An exhibition of Wifredo Lam is about as safe a bet as the Museum of Modern Art can place and still plausibly say that it's a bet on expanding the canon. The Cuban artist is one of the most famous painters of the 20th century, featured in almost every single key show about Surrealism. MoMA acquired his famous painting The Jungle in 1946, a few years after he made it.
The artists José Parlá and Claudia Hilda, his wife, live in a former fire station in Fort Greene surrounded by memories of Cuba, which Parlá's ­family fled in 1970 and where ­Hilda lived until recently. "There's a lot of magical realism here, a big mix of Cuban traditions and religion," says Parlá, pointing to an icon of la Caridad del Cobre, the island's patron saint, in the kitchen. "We cannot move her!"
Last summer, she was one of the interpreters at his 30-date concert residency in Puerto Rico, No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don't Want to Leave Here), which injected hundreds of millions of dollars into Puerto Rico's economy. With lyrics that capture the grief and alienation of Puerto Ricans forced to leave home in search of opportunities, Bad Bunny's 2025 album Debí Tirar Más Fotos became a global phenomenon that continues to resonate across cultures.
Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist on Spotify for four years. He headlined the Super Bowl, singing in Spanish, challenging long-held ideas about what it means to be mainstream. His career highlights how streaming platforms, diaspora audiences, and shifting cultural power now determine global relevance.
In the just-named Grammy Album of the Year, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS-which Bad Bunny has declared his " most Puerto Rican album " to date-the supernova reggaetonero painted an evocative portrait of the Caribbean island, while declaring to a whopping 8.6 million listeners: "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR" (I'm going to bring you to Puerto Rico). And he did. Last year, a record-breaking number of tourists-7,486,000 to be exact-visited Puerto Rico's tropical shores.