Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts Presents Los Pleneros de la 21: Christmas in El Barrio

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2017-18 Season at the Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn on December 10, 2017 at 3pm with the GRAMMY Award-nominated musicians of Los Pleneros de la 21, presenting their musical celebration of Afro-Puerto Rican Christmas traditions Christmas in El Barrio.

Experience the holiday season in Borinquen-style with Los Pleneros de La 21 - from the mountain tops of Puerto Rico to the street corners of New York City, the Puerto Rican holiday season is about reaffirming cultural identity and rejoicing in the strength of family and community ties. Music is at the center of the festivities, with friends gathering in groups called parrandas, going from home to home singing traditional aguinaldos into the wee hours of the morning. Experience the holiday season Borinquen-style with Los Pleneros de La 21.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn, 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn

Online orders: BrooklynCenter.org

Box Office: 718-951-4500, Tuesday-Saturday, 1pm-6pm

Groups of 15 or more: 718-951-4600 x3331

Multibuy discounts (three or more shows) save 15% off individual ticket prices. Multibuyers enjoy flexible ticket exchanges and discounted parking for purchased performances at Brooklyn College. A 50% discount for children ages 12 and under is offered for select performances. Discounts are also available for seniors, students, Brooklyn College faculty/staff/alumni, active/retired military personnel, and groups. $10 student rush tickets available day-of-show.

Brooklyn Center's 2017-18 Season continues with:

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Fifth Annual Lunar New Year Celebration

Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 3pm

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Tickets: $25
Celebrate the oncoming arrival of spring with an all-new festival of Chinese music and dance commemorating the Year of the Dog, faithful guardian and loyal friend to mankind. This family-friendly event includes graceful dancers, a colorful Chinese marketplace, red lions and golden dragons frolicking to the lilting sounds of traditional instruments, and more. Enjoy the elegant splendor and rich culture of one of Brooklyn's most vibrant communities with this award-winning performance by the prestigious Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company.

Daniel Beaty: Emergency

Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 8pm
Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 3pm

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Tickets: $35

When a slave ship emerges out of the Hudson River in present-day New York Harbor, the city and the nation are sent into near-hysteria as they try to understand this bizarre and unexplainable phenomenon. Award-winning actor/writer/poet/community activist Daniel Beaty portrays more than 40 characters in this solo theatrical tour-de-force as he explores our shared humanity and what it means to be free. Through the characters' various testimonies on identity and personal freedom, Emergency weaves an intricately woven, witty, and moving commentary on modern African American life. "We can overcome if we change the way we see, see ourselves, see our past, see our possibility." - Daniel Beaty from Emergency

Kenny Barron (solo piano)

Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 8pm

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Tickets: $35

Praised by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the top jazz pianists in the world," NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron has an unmatched elegance, melodic sensibility, and rhythmic mastery. He has received eleven GRAMMY nods, most recently in 2017 for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and is a six-time recipient of Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists Association. Don't miss this intimate solo performance by a masterful artist who Jazz Weekly calls "the most lyrical piano player of our time."

Alicia Olatuja

Saturday, March 10, 2018 at 8pm

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Tickets: $30

"[A] singer with a strong, lustrous tone and an amiably regal presence onstage." - The New York Times

Brooklyn's own Alicia Olatuja first received national recognition for her soaring solo with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Obama's second inauguration, and has since established herself as one of this generation's most versatile and elegant jazz artists. Her sublime voice has graced the stage of major venues across the country with a combination velvety tone and vibrant confidence. Drawing from a wide range of musical influences-from classical and gospel, to jazz and R&B-she returns home to Brooklyn with her scintillating jazz stylings.

Step Afrika!

Saturday, April 28, 2018 at 3pm & 8pm

Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn
Tickets: $35

With its origins in African American fraternities and sororities, stepping is known for its intricate, synchronized patterns of stomps, kicks, claps, and call-and-response. As the world's first professional company dedicated to this art form, the dancers of Step Afrika! use their bodies as instruments, integrating stepping with African traditional dance and other dance forms to create a high-energy, sharply choreographed, and incredibly entertaining performance.

About Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts

Founded in 1954, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College presents outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities, at affordable prices. Each season, Brooklyn Center welcomes over 65,000 people to the 2,400 seat Whitman Theatre, including up to 45,000 schoolchildren from over 300 schools who attend their SchoolTime series, one of the largest arts-in-education programs in the borough.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts' programs are supported, in part, by public funding from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Brooklyn Center's 2017-18 season is made possible by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of

Governor Andrew Cuomo and The New York State Legislature.

Major support for the 2017-18 season is provided by: Brooklyn College, Con Edison, TD Bank, National Grid, The Howard Gilman Foundation, the Jazz Touring Network, the Alice Lawrence Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the TD Charitable Foundation. Additional support provided by CNG Publications, The Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn Media Group, and WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott New York Brooklyn is the official hotel of Brooklyn Center's 2017-18 season.

Brooklyn Center's presentations of Alicia Olatuja is made possible through the Jazz Touring Network program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges generous support from New York State Assembly members Annette Robinson and Helene Weinstein; New York City Council Member Jumaane D. Williams; New York City Council Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer; New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Tom Finkelpearl.

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