Jonathan Marcantoni had an idea for a more interactive cultural festival celebrating his Puerto Rican heritage than the 40-year-old playwright had seen in the past.
So the Glendale resident gathered some people and ideas together and came up with something new: Festival Flamboyán, scheduled for June 8 at Lakewood’s The Three Leaches Theater, where he’s a resident artist.
Named after a popular flower in the Caribbean, the festival will provide a platform for local artists and activities.
“This event will feature artists, books, and plays by Puerto Ricans in Colorado and from the island,” he said.
“The day begins with an art market, a book fair, a salsa class, and live music ... In the evening, we will have ... plays, dances and comedy,” according to Marcantoni, director and founder of the event who was born in Philadelphia and spent part of his childhood in Puerto Rico.
People he knew were suggesting something bigger than Coloradan Puerto Rican celebrations of the past.
“There had been the Taste of Puerto Rico Festival, and there have been some other attempts around the metro area to do a Puerto Rican festival, but they always had more Mexican-American vendors and non-Puerto Rican vendors than they had Puerto Ricans involved,” he said. “And so when I got the theater space in Lakewood, [it was] an opportunity to do an all-Puerto Rican celebration, pulling from the different artists and different connections that I have to focus it on our culture and our people.”
In the past, he said, there wasn’t enough to do at cultural festivals for his liking.
“I've always felt that cultural festivals are often very passive and you just kind of walk around in a circle where all the different vendor booths are. Maybe there's some music playing, but there's not a lot of engagement.”
This event, he hopes, will be different. Locals involved include David Medina, author of a book of poetry called Prayers for Whoever Listens, and Denver-based magical realism author Manny Minaya, who will be part of the variety show.
The comedy performance will be led by Matthew Rodriguez, who in May was part of an immersive experience at Rise Comedy. There will also be two short plays, one a romantic comedy, the other a satire, and dance classes by Kebrina Josefina De Jesus, who founded Boulder-based dance collective Samba Colorado in 2013.
Another local who’ll be there is Keigh Crespo, who runs Dos Abuelas, a pop-up/food catering company that she hopes one day to turn into a brick-and-mortar. She said along with her homemade food, she’ll be bringing tables, food warmers and a tent. She’ll be ready to feed about 150 people, with appetizers and plates ranging in price from $6 to $15, she said.
Crespo, who was born in The Bronx and spent part of her childhood in Puerto Rico, where her parents were born, has been in Colorado since 2017, always missing foods she grew up eating, which she’ll replicate at the festival.
“I think I will stick to just some staples, some traditional foods like mofongo and Grandma's plate, which is everyone's favorite: rice and beans and your choice of protein and your choice of plantain, whether it's sweet or salty.”
Mofongo, she explained, is a snack where plantain serves as an edible container. “You wrap the green plantain, chop it up, throw it in the fryer,” she said. “Once it gets golden, you mash it up and you start just making it into a bowl shape.” After that, the plantain bowl is stuffed with a protein, and - in Crespo’s iteration – topped off with some broth.
The festival, she said, will be a link to home.
“I miss my culture. I miss Puerto Rico; I miss the Bronx. So, it's like, Colorado's cool, but it is lacking so much culture ... so I really tried to incorporate whatever community that I can grasp ... I like to bring the whole vibe back,” she said.
“I just want to partake in anything that's Puerto Rican,” she said. “For the past couple of years, we haven't had the big festival and Civic Center, which I was at every year. So I was just excited to join.”
Marcantoni said he hopes others will be, too. “This is an opportunity not only for the Puerto Rican community,” he said of the event (which costs between $20 and $40 depending on which events one attends), “but also for all Denver communities that want to have fun and experience another culture.”
