Performing Arts

Bronx Woman Helen Kane Was Inspiration For Betty Boop

Born in 1904 in The Bronx and attended St Anselm’s Roman Catholic school on Tinton Avenue, Helen Clare Schroeder would eventually become the inspiration for one of the most iconic and lasting cartoon characters, Betty Boop.

Little did Helen Kane, a German-Irish Catholic woman from The Bronx (as she later became known), know that her likeness would set the globe ablaze as one of the first and most famous of all sex symbols in all the world of animation.

Get A Discount to The Bronx Opera Company’s Upcoming ‘Regina’ Through Welcome2TheBronx!

As The Bronx Opera Company enters its 49th year of consecutive performances, they will be holding 4 performances this month of ‘Regina’—two at Lehman College and two at Hunter College in Manhattan and by bringing the above flyer and showing it at the box office you get a $10 discount off tickets!

Parranda in The Bronx! Puerto Rican Style Christmas Caroling in Melrose

Join the Bronx Music Heritage Center for the first ever Parranda, the traditional fun-filled Puerto Rican way of celebrating the holidays in this inaugural event that will take on a different theme each year!

The event is scheduled for Monday, December 21st and kicks off at the Bronx Documentary Center at 4pm.

If you’ve never been to a parranda or know what it is, it’s basically Christmas caroling on steroids with traditional Puerto Rican instruments and the crowd grows as it goes from place to place, picking folks up along the way.

Legionnaires Update, Migration Stories, Puerto Rican Heritage Artist & Book Expo|Bronx PM Links

Legionnaires update on the second outbreak in The Bronx in Morris Park, Puerto Rican Heritage Month’s Artist and Book Expo at Hostos Community College, and Migration Stories at The Bronx Documentary Story are part of this evening’s Bronx PM Links roundup.

Frida Kahlo Exhibition Shatters New York Botanical Garden Attendance Record

Last year when we first got wind that The New York Botanical Garden was planning a Frida Kahlo exhibition we knew it was going to be big—but never imagined how big.

When we wrote about the show coming, a full year before it was scheduled to open, tens of thousands of people flooded our servers and shared our posts in excitement that this was happening and that it was happening in The Bronx.

Hugo Chavez, an Oil Company and the Beautiful Sound of Bronx Youth

When we first started our music program with a handful of kids in 2009 we only dreamed of one day having an orchestra full of youth from the South Bronx. Now, not only does such an orchestra exist but it’s had the incredible good fortune to travel to Venezuela for a week of intensive study and performance with El Sistema, the world-renown Venezuelan system of youth orchestras and choirs that inspired us to start UpBeat NYC six years ago.

The Venezuelan-Bronx cultural exchange continues this weekend when the National Youth Orchestra of Caracas comes to Crotona Park for a free outdoor concert open to the public. The 160-piece orchestra will also be performing this weekend at the United Nations for its 70th anniversary celebration. It is noteworthy that this renowned orchestra, one of El Sistema’s most important orchestral and educational achievements, will be holding its public concert in the South Bronx, a community rich in its own culture but so often overlooked and underserved.

Come Party With the Bronx Musical Heritage Center In Melrose With A Big Block Party

Enjoy outdoor festivities on a car-free street as WHEDco and the Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC) shut down the streets for live performances, face painting, games, free health screenings, arts activities, and much more! Lets wrap up the summer in proper block party fashion.

Be a Part of History: Are You Ready To Boogie On The Boulevard One More Time This Sunday?

This Sunday from Noon to 4PM is your LAST CHANCE to Boogie on The Boulevard in 2015 for this 3 Sunday summer event which closes off the center lanes of The Grand Concourse between 161st and 167th Street—a full 7 city block stretch—transforming this area into a huge an approximately 4.75 acre recreational space filled with fitness and health activities, art, dancing, bike riding, skating, performing arts and so much more!

This Sunday will also have a special treat for everyone: Morris Perk will be stationed inside The Bronx Museum serving their popular Bronx Blend coffee, limeade, and delicious pastelitos (aka pastelillos aka empanadas) made locally right here in The Bronx supporting other Bronx women owned businesses! (The last two times Morris Perk served all of this deliciousness, they sold out so make sure to get there early before they are all sold out!