Salsa Stories Returns!

New York City’s favorite itinerant salsa street event, SALSA STORIES collaborates with new media artists to create light installations and augmented reality experiences.

New York, NY — SALSA STORIES is celebrating its second season and Hispanic Heritage Month with the premiere of Sound of Light, featuring light projections programmed to respond to dancers’ movements, as well as an augmented reality exhibition that draws from archival images mostly from Center for Puerto Rican Studies, allowing participants to see historic photos of event locations in situ. SALSA STORIES founder and cultural producer Bianka Widakay commissioned artists to create new media works. “For me, SALSA STORIES is more than just salsa dance block parties but a documentary project that activates the sites where salsa was born,” says Widakay. “I wanted to do something that would accentuate the environment, highlighting the buildings and importance of our chosen locations as incubators of the beautiful music and dance form what we know as salsa.” Widakay is a Brazilian-born filmmaker and Telly® Award–winning producer who launched SALSA STORIES in 2017 as a documentary project. She spent five years filming oral histories with key figures in New York City’s vibrant salsa scene. Today, SALSA STORIES is an immersive experience that brings her filmed interviews, a photo exhibition, as well as free dance classes, live music, and DJs to the very streets where the music and dance were born.