The tertulia is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones that has its roots in the salons of enlightenment Europe and with social movements in Latin America. Over the last year in the predominantly Latino community of Jackson Heights in Queens, NY, the tertulia is being revived and in Spanish.

Fusión Atómica, a Queens based cultural organization founded in 2003 by Juan Esteban and Angela Perez, originally wanted to educate high school and college age Latinos about their culture and heritage. What followed was a weekly radio program . The radio program has grown into a twice a month cultural sharing or tertulia.

The tertulias take place every other Wednesday at D’Antigua, a bar/restaurant known for its Latin rock scene more than for its poetry scene. The tertulias are always jam packed with a mix of young and old Latinos from all over. Musical performances include hip-hop and more traditional baladas. Spoken word poets are followed by story tellers. Puerto Ricans follow Colombians who follow Ecuadorians who are all loved by the audience.

I first performed at the tertulia over a year ago, as a spoekn word poet trained in the Nuyorican school using my primary languages of Spanglish and hip hop. The tertulia gave me space to perform but also room to grow as a Latina artist which included a supportive environment to do something I thought I would never do, write and perform in Spanish. The tertulias serve not just as a place for the exchange of culture and ideas but also foster the idea of pan-Latino unity and support and ain’t that what comunidad is all about?