BRONX SCENE
Bronx Music Heritage Center’s Living Legends Concert
The Bronx Music Heritage Center
will host a special Living Legends
Concert at Playground 52, located
at 681 Kelly Street, to honor Benny
Ayala for his career as a pioneering
“plenero” in the Bronx and for cultivating
the next generation of plena
and bomba musicians.
The event, which will take place
on Saturday, May 18 at 4 p.m., will
feature guest speakers Desseree
Soto, director of Casita Rincón Criollo.
plenero Aurelio Rivera, and Fernando
“Ponce” LaSpina of El Maestro,
Inc. Juan Laporte Boxing Gym.
There will be performances by local
plena groups Artesanos de la Plena
and Kinto Zonó.
Plena, a folkloric music and dance
genre that originated in Puerto Rico
in the early 1900’s– is characterized
by its infectious beat and rhythm,
generally played using hand drums
called panderetas, also known as
panderos. Bienvenido “Benny” Ayala
has been one of the premier plena exponents
in the Bronx over the past
decades.
He is also one of the founding
members of Casita Rincón Criollo,
the most famous of the casitas
(or “small houses”) in the Bronx,
which are reminiscent of the small,
brightly-colored cottages of rural
Puerto Rico.
The Bronx Living Legend Concert
in honor of Benny Ayala is free and
open to the public.
It has been made possible thanks
to collaboration with 52 People for
Progress and the NYC Department of
Parks & Recreation.
BMHC programming is supported,
in part, by the National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York
State Council on the Arts with the
support of Governor Andrew Cuomo
and the New York State Legislature,
public funds from the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs in
partnership with the City Council,
the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund,
and the Lincoln Center Cultural Innovation
Fund, which is generously
supported by The Rockefeller Foundation
and administered by Lincoln
Center.
The weekly podcast features Power
Women such as Judge Judith Sheinlin
of “Judge Judy,” Pat DiMango of “Hot
Bench,” New York City Census Director
Julie Menin and many others.
This week’s podcast guest is Carrie
Anne Cavallo, the President of the
Women’s Bar Association of Brooklyn
and Managing Partner of Schpoont &
Cavallo.
Cavallo tells host Victoria Schneps
that growing up moving around several
different locations and how an important
relationship with her grandmother
inspired her
work ethic. “Through
watching her, I
learned that anything
is possible,” she said.
She chose to became
a lawyer because
of a desire for
challenge after getting
into law school.
Working in children’s
services during law
school gave her an interest
in family law.
“I did like the social
aspect of what I was doing and having
the interaction with people and the
ability to help people,,” Cavallo said.
Cavallo discusses
what has made her
successful. These podcasts,
“Power Women”
share successful women’s
secrets to success.
Tune in to the 15-
minute podcast at SchnepsBroadcasting.
com and wherever podcasts are
heard.
BRONX TIMES R 72 EPORTER, MAY 10-16, 2019 BTR
Benny Ayala will be performing on Saturday, May 18, at Playground 52.
Photo courtesy of the Bronx Music Heritage Center