Cultural Celebrations
Día de Los Muertos
Our Day of the Dead celebration on Saturday, October 31 was a huge success! What a wonderful day ... We had over 2,000 attendees, and more than 1,200 visiting our gallery exhibitions. All our programs were highly attended ... including the evening performances when it was pouring rain outside and Halloween was on its peak downtown!
Día de Los Muertos made possible by a generous grant from Goya.
Schedule of the day:
Storytelling
COLORIN COLORADO… Journey to Mictlan
11:00am – 12:00pm and 1:00 - 2:00pm, El Taller
Be part of the puppet play performance Journey to Mictlan. This one-person show by artist Polina Porras incorporates toy puppets, video projections, and an original score by young Mexican composer Javier Meza.
Art-Making Workshop
CALAVERA MASK MAKING
11:00am – 3:00pm, The Courtyard
Learn to create handcrafted, life-size calavera masks for day of the dead. You will decorate festive colorful calaca masks to be used later that day during a procession through Central Park. Be prepared to get some paint on your clothes!
Art-Making Workshop
RETABLOS MAKING
11:00am – 3:00pm, El Taller
Participants will create their own interpretation of the traditional tin devotional painting practice known in Mexico as the retablo or ex-voto. Images produced will honor and remember loved ones who have passed. Bring your “creative” caps!
Food Tasting
LO QUE NO MATA, ENGORDA: Hot Chocolate and Pan de Muerto
12:00pm – 2:00pm, The Courtyard
Honor the departed with traditional Pan de Muerto, bread baked for both the living and dead and hot chocolate typically placed on altars and graves during Day of the Dead.
Photo booth
MI CARA CALACA, Calavera face painting and photo portraits
11:00am – 3:00pm, Courtyard
Come get your face painted as calaveras and pose for a picture as the famous La Catrina and her friends! And when you go back home, you can log onto El Museo’s website and tag yourself. Photo backdrop by artist Paul Lambermont.
Altar Talks
A MI QUERIDA CATRINA
11:00am – 3:00pm, El Café
The Day of the Dead is a time for the dead to return home and visit loved ones, feast on their favorite foods and listen to their favorite music. Family members honor their deceased with ofrendas or offerings, which may consist of photographs, bread, other foods, flowers, toys, and other symbolic offerings. Bring your own mementos to celebrate your loved ones that have passed on. Artist Edwin Gonzalez will explain the ideas behind the altar he created to honor The Honorable Olga Méndez, the former New York State Senator for El Barrio who recently passed away.
Concert
A MOVER EL ESQUELETO
3:00 – 4:30pm, El Teatro
The young musicians of The Mariachi Academy of New York and Mexico Beyond Mariachi bring rhythmic life to our Day of the Dead celebration with a delightful program that showcases Mexico’s vast cultural expression. The concert takes the audience on a journey that begins over 500 years ago during the fascinating world of the Aztec civilization, then continues in chronological order showing how time, geography, climate, and foreign influence have affected folk traditions to the present day.
Street Procession
CALAVERAS CALLEJERAS: East Harlem Meer Procession
4:30 – 5:30pm, East Harlem Meer, Central Park
Led by Mariachi Academy, people of all ages dressed in skeleton costumes will gather at El Museo’s courtyard and assemble in a joyful procession through Central Park.
Obra de Teatro
LA MUERTE ME PELA LOS DIENTES con Susana Alexander
6:00 - 7:00 pm, El Teatro
La muerte me pela los dientes es un pretexto para compartir el dolor de una pérdida, la muerte de un ser querido. Pero no … no crea usted que Susana Alexander nos hará pasar un mal momento. Al contrario, la suya es una voz que acaricia, que abraza, que acompaña. Susana Alexander es reconocida como una de las figuras más importantes del mundo artístico y cultural de México. Programa en español.
Multimedia Performance
IMPERIAL SILENCE: Una Opera Muerta / A Dead Opera in Four Acts
8:30 – 10:30 pm, El Teatro
Imperial Silence: Una Opera Muerta / A Dead Opera in Four Acts is a bilingual, new media opera exploring cultural taboos around silence and death and in the satirical Mexican and Chicano tradition of the Day of the Dead. This hybrid performance fuses dark humored animation with traditional mariachi, hip hop, bossa nova, and blues conceived and created by director/librettist, John Jota Leaños, the mariachi ensemble, Los Cuatro Vientos, and choreographer Joel Valentín-Martínez.
