Arts & Culture

Since 1958, the Puerto Rican Day Parade has been an event that brings together several organizations dedicated to preserving and advancing Puerto Rican culture. Capicu Culture, a grassroots organization out of Brooklyn, is a multicultural arts collective inspired by the Nuyorican Poets Café. The organization hosts live events like the Capicu Cultural Showcase and has provided a cultural space for...

Ivan Velez Jr. is a little-known Bronx artist with great significance to the comic book industry. Creator of the 80s comic series Tales of the Closet , and Co-Creator of the early 90s series Blood Syndicate , Ivan has drawn comics that give greater representation to racial and sexual diversity. Ivan’s focus throughout his career has been to create complex stories featuring minority heroes as they...

I overhear an older woman leaning toward her friend to tell her, “Es un Da Vinci,” as they each take another astonished look around the room. The friend nods while waiting to speak with the artist. The Puerto Rican Da Vinci, I correct her in my head, as if the crudeness of her innocent remark was somehow incomplete. Jorge Luis Rodriguez, standing in the corner, has spent the past hour presenting...

Comic books and their heroes and villains constantly prove to withstand the test of time. But the way that readers engage with comic books and culture has definitely evolved over the the years. Webcomics emerged alongside the advent of the internet. In the early ‘80s comic artists like Erik Millikin and Joe Ekaitis became popular for their web presentation of comics--and the medium has become...