
CALENDARIO CULTURAL DE LA ESCUELITA

Spring Classes 2025 Registration & Info
Bomba y Plena con La Escuelita BomBera de Corazón
We are officially LIVE! We have RELEASED OUR CLASSES FOR 2025! #AfroPuertoRicanCultura #Bomba #Plena In Person & Virtual options available. All levels
Classes for adults and kids beginning April 2025! Come join us!

Batey De Mujeres
🔥 Taller de Bomba para Mujeres🔥
For Us, By Us Honoring Our Collective power, Unity, Resilience & Roots
📅 Monday, March 17
📍 La Escuelita Bombera De Corazón 3505 w North Ave
💜 Free | Limited Spots Available
This FREE Bomba workshop is created for and by BIPOC women, providing a sacred space to connect with the drum, our voices, and each other. Rooted in the traditions of our ancestors, we gather to honor our power, our stories, and our movement.
🎶 What to Expect:
🔹 Dance: Move with intention, presence, rhythm and have fun!
No experience needed! Just bring your energy, an open heart, and readiness to embrace the power of Bomba!
BOMBAZO
Bombazo & After Party CHICAGO📍
This Saturday ,March 8th at 7pm-10pm at La Escuelita Bombera De Corazón in celebration of NuyoRican artist Adrian @viajero Roman the artist & creator behind the newest exhibition “Archivos Vivos“ at The National Puerto Rican Museum 🇵🇷

Fiesta De Reyes Magos
Join us at La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon as we welcome Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar for story time , photos and live Bomba y Plena
FREE gifts for kids ages 0-12 first 20 families to register.
Date: Monday, January 6th 2025
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: 3505 w. North Ave Chicago, IL 60647

Taller De Bomba con Mariela Mendoza
Taller de Bomba de Subidor with Mariela Mendoza
Join our community for our “Taller de Bomba- Subidor con Mariela Mendoza” directly from Puerto Rico. This workshop is an opportunity to connect, practice and challenge yourself as a drummer. Mariela will be leading a class about the role, rudiments and helpful combination to help you develop your own language en el subidor o tambor primo THE MAIN DRUM in Bomba.
Two workshops will be offered:
*BEGINNERS 2pm * ADVANCED 3:30pm (Must be a seasoned buleadxr drummer)
In Person Location: La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon 3505 W. North Ave Chicago IL 60639
Virtual Class will be held through ZOOM.

De Paseo Con La Escuelita NYC
“De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón”
is a concept initiated in 2021 from La Escuelita’s “Song & History “ virtual classes that centered historians and elders as the bridge to explore history and its context during pandemic time. De Paseo now in its third rotation. Aims and focuses on the stories of our elders—our mayores, by spotlighting their lived experiences, we aim to preserve and honor the invaluable narratives and oral histories that are essential to our cultural identity and heritage. These stories provide a deeper understanding of our roots, the many evolution of Bomba, and the resilience and creativity of our communities across generations. From Puerto Rico to Boricuas en La Diaspora and back! We’re all connected, we’ve always been connected ❤️💛🖤
2021 & 2022 we visited and explored history with over 50 elders and historians of different pueblos and families en Puerto Rico! This year we’ll be diving into the Puerto Rican Diaspora and it’s movement, timeline and stories beginning with the first place and it’s beginning stages of activating Bomba y Plena outside of Puerto Rico with Puerto Rico #union :
First stop : NEW YORK! #NuYoRicans
Please join us! Take a look and help us spread the word! We thank all our mayores, mentors and teachers for all their contributions, dedication and love to the preservation of our music, roots and patria 🇵🇷
Schedule:
Thursday August 22nd 2024:
Live Panel Discussion at La Sala de Pepe
“Entre Charlas y Conversaciones” Time Traveling with a few of the pillas elders from NYC & NJ 7pm-8:30pm (EST)
Friday August 23rd 2024:
Saucy Batey at Absolute Cuisine & Bar
Live Performance by BomPleneras & Bomberxs D’Cora Y
Bombazo dedicated to our elders 8:30pm-12am $5 cover
Sunday August 25th 2024:
¡A bombear se ha dicho en La Casita De Chema!
FREE Bomba Dance Workshop & Bombazo OPEN TO ALL!
FREE BOMBA DANCE WORKSHOP 2:30-3:15pm
Open Bombazo from 3:30-6pm 🖤❤️💛
Please join us in PERSON OR VIRTUALLY
Be sure to follow our Facebook Page and YouTube Channel @ La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon!
More info : www.bomberadecorazon.com



World After This One: A Performance by Benji Hart
WORLD AFTER THIS ONE: A PERFORMANCE BY BENJI HART
Friday, March 8 at 7pm
La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón
3505 W North Ave. Chicago, IL
Talkback with Ivelisse Diaz
Free admission *limited spots available*
In this 2024 premiere, interdisciplinary artist Benji Hart’s World After This One uses movement and spoken word to examine how Black people have historically reclaimed the materials of empire to construct portals to impossible futures. Looking through the lenses of three Black art forms—the queer street style of vogue, the Afro-Boricua dance and drumming tradition of bomba, and gospel music—World After This One blurs the lines between the secular and the sacred, celebration and mourning, the past and the yet-to-pass, imagining Black liberation not as a metaphor, but a possibility.
The premiere of World After This One will take place across three different weekends at three venues, culminating at the LookOut Series at Steppenwolf. To see the full list of performances, visit BenjiHart.com.
Benji Hart is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator whose work centers Black radicalism, queer liberation, and prison abolition. Their words have appeared or are forthcoming in anthologies from Oxford University Press, Beacon Press, Haymarket Books, Pluto Press, and have been published at Time, Teen Vogue, The Advocate, The Funambulist Magazine, and elsewhere. They have led popular education and arts-based workshops for organizations internationally, including Project NIA, Forward Together, SisterSong, and Dissenters, and presented at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the American Repertory Theater, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Their performances have been featured at the Poetry Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Den Frie, and Museo del Chopo. They have received fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and are a Kistenbroker Family Artist in Residence at the Lab School.
Ivelisse “Bombera de Corazón” Diaz was born and raised in Humboldt Park, the heart of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community. She is a founding member and lead vocalist of Bomba con Buya and director of the all-women assemble Las BomPleneras. In 2009, La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon was founded out of Ivelisse’s commitment to Black and Indigenous art education and her first-hand experiences of Bomba’s revolutionary power. With a vision at the intersection of art education and social justice, La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon’s bombastic pedagogy forms in-person and virtual sessions into a batey of embodied learning, reciprocity, healing, and remembrance. For her unique artistry, educational expertise, and community organizing, Ivelisse Diaz was awarded the 3Arts Make a Wave Award in 2017 and the prestigious 3Arts Award in 2019. Almost 30 years since her first day of class with her Tio Eli, Ivelisse chooses to encounter the drum daily as a student, creative artist, community organizer, proud Boricua de Chicago, and most importantly, a mother to her dearest daughter Amaya.

14th Year Anniversary Concert with Alma Moyo
Join us on October 28th 2023 as La Escuelita celebrates 14 years of bringing Bomba to the city of Chicago with special guests : Alma Moyo.



Latin Percussion Clinic with Grammy Nominee and Master Percussionist ANTHONY CARRILLO
Come take advantage of this opportunity to learn and be part of a clinic-workshop led by Grammy Nominee and Master Percussionist ANTHONY CARRILLO. Intimate setting with limited capacity, reserve your spot here! Please bring an instrument!
Location: La Escuelita Bombera De Corazon 3505 w. North Ave Chicago IL 60639
Time: 6pm-8pm
Fee: $25
In partnership with Naterod Studio.


Loiza en Chicago! A celebration and Fundraiser!
📣 La Escuelita presenta: LOIZA IN CHICAGO! 💚♥️💛 Saturday JULY 29th 2023!!!
Come and join us Saturday July 29th 6pm at La Escuelita 3505 w North Ave it’s a BIG celebration! Don’t miss out! In celebration of our very own director’s birthday @ivelisse_diaz_ and fundraising efforts for our amazing home La Escuelita! ITS TIME 🔥🔥
Our special guests directly from Loiza:
@penalozapica Marco Peñaloza Pica
@mariealor1 Alondra Marie Ortiz
@dimelojeankii Jean Carlos Osorio
@negron91paintball Luis Negron
🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷🇵🇷
Suggested Donation $10 @door
Live Performance 💃
Silent Auction 👀
New Merch 👕
Don Carlitos Piraguas 🍧
Bombazo , Plenazo & more! 🔥
La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón 💛❤️🖤
La Escuelita at Fiestas Puertorriqueñas 2023
WE ARE OFFICIALLY READY FOR PUERTO RICAN FESTIVAL WEEK AND PARADE! La Escuelita at Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas! 2023
June 8th-11th 2023!
We are excited to bring you cultural programming the whole weekend! In partnership with Fiestas Patronales Puertorriqueñas / Puerto Rican Festival!
Check out our calendar! Stop by our tent and visit us! Join our Bombazos y Plenazos! Workshops! Stage Performances!
This year for the very first time La Escuelita will be coming out in the Puerto Rican parade! Waving our flags with the sounds of Puerto Rican cultura! Look out for our float! Saturday June 10th 2023 parade begins at 2pm on Division Street.

La Escuelita Grand Opening
A full day of activities to celebrate La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón’s grand opening!

Batey de Las Mujeres Free Workshop
Free Bomba dance workshop for women led by Ivelisse Diaz and Las Bompleneras in honor of Mes de La Mujer!
Saucy Sunday End of Semester Bombazo
Celebrate the end of La Escuelita’s most recent semester con un bombazo para los estudiantes y toda la comunidad!

Family Day at the MCA
Join Bomberxs D’Cora for a live bomba performance! Families are invited to dance to the music.
La Escuelita’s 13th Year Anniversary
Join us for La Escuelita’s 13th Anniversary, the hottest party of the year, on November 5th! There are only 60 spaces available. Be sure to secure your spot below.
RSVP CLOSED


De Paseo con La Escuelita – Loíza
"De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón", is a week and a half long series of free, covid-safe virtual workshops with mayores, maestros, and artesanos from Guayama, Santurce , Mayagüez, and Loíza. Save the dates! Mark them on your calendars! Tap in!

De Paseo con La Escuelita – Concierto con La Resistencia
"De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón", is a week and a half long series of free, covid-safe virtual workshops with mayores, maestros, and artesanos from Guayama, Santurce , Mayagüez, and Loíza. Save the dates! Mark them on your calendars! Tap in!

De Paseo con La Escuelita – Mayagüez
"De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón", is a week and a half long series of free, covid-safe virtual workshops with mayores, maestros, and artesanos from Guayama, Santurce , Mayagüez, and Loíza. Save the dates! Mark them on your calendars! Tap in!

De Paseo con La Escuelita – Guayama
"De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón", is a week and a half long series of free, covid-safe virtual workshops with mayores, maestros, and artesanos from Guayama, Santurce , Mayagüez, and Loíza. Save the dates! Mark them on your calendars! Tap in!

Saucy Batey – July 24
A collaborative batey open to all voguers and bomberxs as part of the “Navigating Blackness: exploring gener and sexuality in black diasporic traditions” event series and a fundraiser for La Escuelita’s upcoming trip to Puerto Rico. Special guests: Benji Hart and Edrimael Delgado

Navigating Blackness – Navegando lo negro
Navigating Blackness – Navegando lo negro:
Exploring gender and sexuality in Black diasporic traditions

Sip & Paint Fundraiser
Join us Wednesday July 13th for a Sip & Paint with Shervin Olvid at Urban Theater as we fundraise our budget for our second year of "De Paseo con La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón"!