La Peña Cultural Center

La Peña promotes arts participation, social justice and intercultural understanding. We are located just 2 blocks from Ashby Bart!

Check out our website to see our calendar upcoming community events and classes: www.lapena.org

Our events and classes are gathering places for dozens of communities to practice distinct cultural traditions from the Americas and beyond. Check out our calendar to see a mix of classes and events: latin jazz, nueva canción, flamenco, Cuban rumba, son jarocho (Mexico), capoeira Angola (Brazil), salsa, cumbia, Puerto Rican bomba & plena, Afro-Peruvian cajon classes and events.

Moreover, La Peña is a cultural homeplace where every week, toddlers, children, teens, and adults study the musical and performance artistic traditions that have nourished struggles of resistance, sustained cultures, and contributed to the well-being of communities. These roots performance traditions have managed to flourish despite long and complex histories linked to colonialism in the Americas that led to censorship and neglect. They have often been excluded from mainstream recognition by official histories, public radio, and school music curricula. Roots arts encourage us to think beyond consumer approaches to performance in order to become producers and creators of our own restorative culture. These inherited traditions have often thrived for centuries underground and as a result are absolutely modern and contemporary. They can also be revolutionary, thought-provoking, healing, and inspiring.