Caridad De La Luz is a multifaceted performer known as LA BRUJA. Winner of an Emmy as Script Writer of “Legacy of Puerto Rican Poetry” – Cultural Short Segment that aired on ABC, and as of January 2022, she became the newly appointed Executive Director of the NUYORICAN POETS CAFE where she began her career in 1996.

Winner of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship 2019-2020 and a 2021 David Prize finalist, Caridad balances a career of activism, education and art with performances in successful Off-Broadway musicals such as I LIKE IT LIKE THAT and BETSY as the title role. She raps, acts, sings, hosts, recites, dances, does stand up comedy, writes plays/poems/songs/scripts and teaches others how to do the same.

She has been one of America’s leading spoken word poets for over 20 years and has received the Puerto Rican Women Legacy Award, The Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Bronx Historical Society and was honored as A Bronx Living Legend by The Bronx Music Heritage Center.

She was presented with a Citation of Merit from The Bronx Borough President and named “Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know”. NY Times called her a “Juggernaut” after the first off-Broadway run of her original musical BOOGIE RICAN BLVD. where she played 7 different characters. Her acting career has taken her from stage to film: appearing in numerous movies such as BAMBOOZLED, DOWN TO THE BONE, EL VACILON and GUN HILL ROAD. Internationally introduced to the world in Russell Simmons’ DEF POETRY JAM on HBO, her career has spanned musically and her Hip Hop albums can be found on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube under the titles: BRUJALICIOUS and FOR WITCH IT STANDS.

Since 2015, she has been cultivating her own art space in the Soundview section of The Bronx called EL GARAJE on the ancestral lands of the Siwanoy Nation once called Snakapins. Along with Pepatian.org where she has been a co-director and consultant since 2009, they have just celebrated their 5th annual Bronx Indigenous Futurisms gathering at Clason Point and have co-produced La Bruja’s new one-woman show FROM POOR TO RICO which includes original music and visuals of Puerto Rico in the 1970s. See it at Hostos April 29th!