Lincoln Center Brings Back Summer for the City: A Celebration of Culture and Community

Lincoln Center is ready to bring back one of the city’s biggest cultural festivals, Summer for the City, this year… And best of all, most of its programming is free.

“‘Summer for the City’ is truly a gift to New York, it is our gift to New Yorkers, to tourists, the invitation is to dance, it is to celebrate together,” said Paloma Estevez, director of artistic programming, Lincoln Center.

Estevez, director of artistic programming and responsible for the show, invites everyone to join the hundreds of acts with thousands of artists to celebrate the cultural communities of New York.

“Around not only our ‘dance floor,’ our ‘disco floor’r, but around the music and arts that we believe in, is what brings all of us as a community together and united,” added Estevez.

Several nights a week attendees will enjoy a wide range of performances and dance classes of various styles, such as swing, hip-hop, merengue, salsa, lindy hop, among others…

“Well, for years now we have a series of programs here called VAYA, the VAYA series presents the best of salsa, merengue and urban Latin pop music that represents New York City,” explained Carlos Chirinos, Latin music programmer, Lincoln Center.

All on a dance floor under a glittering disco sphere three meters in diameter.

The venue, which has been transformed with multiple outdoor spaces, will also offer free shows and creative activities for children of all ages and families.

“Come to enjoy, to play, to spend the day, to have a drink, to eat something at Lincoln Center, so the invitation is not only to see the shows, but to spend the day here. This is a public space that is open and where everyone is welcome,” Estevez said.

It should be noted that this year the Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos was honored with a mural where they captured a piece of her poem ‘I myself was my route’.

“To emphasize the importance of the poetry of Latin America writing, for all Puerto Ricans and Latinos in New York, and we also really like that this poem looks towards the West Side of Lincoln Center which, as you may know, is a huge community of Latinos, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-American and Afro-Latinos,” Estevez said.

The sixteen acres of outdoor space for the Summer for the City festival will be available from June 14 to August 12 with different types of programming.

For more information visit summerforthecity.org