With its infectious call and response vocals and topical lyrics commenting on the events and gossip of the day, the music genre plena is known in Puerto Rico as the people’s newspaper. And much like ...

In Santurce, a poor suburb outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, there’s a bus that doesn’t run anymore, but the stops it once madeparadasstill lend their names to the densely populated neighborhoods. Ask ...

Music at the Odyssey will present Plenazo Tribe, L.A.’s premiere Puerto Rican music collective, in a festive night of live ...

Although transnational, contemporary, and based on the Cuban son, salsa is often assumed to be Puerto Rico’s national song. Enter Plena Libre, purveyors of Puerto Rican pride and promoters of plena, a ...

A solid rhythm beat from stage right at the Joe Mathias Elementary School cafeteria Thursday afternoon. Gary Nunez waved his arms at the other side of the cafeteria, orchestrating a plena rhythm in ...

Some musical genres are just particular—particular to a region or a community, without aspiring to be universally relevant or to commercially conquer new audiences. I think of the plena this way, an ...

The Riverside Live! music series winds up its season in spicy fashion May 10 with a Latin dance party and music by Puerto Rico's hottest band, Plena Libre. The concert will be in the Mayo Civic Center ...

Contemporary masters Plena Libre have been appointed the Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Chicago for the 2019-20 season. Nominated for multiple Grammys and Latin Grammys, ...

Saxophonist/Composer Miguel Zenon will be bringing his Esta Plena Quintet to the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, Ill. from October 8th thru 11th, 2009 in celebration of his new Marsalis Music release “Esta ...

Like a nimble jet aircraft, Miguel Zenón's Esta Plena leaps into flight from its very first notes. The album arrives not long after Awake (Marsalis Music, 2008), Zenón's jazz quartet/string quartet ...

Julienne Gage is a Miami-based anthropologist and journalist who has worked as a reporter and as a civil rights and international aid communications specialist in the United States, Latin America, the ...