Vamos! Experience the Arts Family Program
2026-04-04 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
NHCC | Domenici Education Building
Join us for a joyful, all-ages introduction to Ballet Folklórico! This family-friendly workshop invites participants of every generation to explore the vibrant rhythms, colorful traditions, and cultural stories of Mexico through dance. Led by experienced instructors, from Ballet Folklórico Fiesta Mexicana, you’ll learn basic steps, simple choreography, and the history behind this dynamic folkloric art form—no prior dance experience needed.

Come move together, celebrate heritage, and experience the energy and beauty of Ballet Folklórico in a welcoming, community-centered environment. Comfortable clothing and shoes recommended.

Vamos to the National Hispanic Cultural Center on the first Saturday of the month for vibrant monthly family workshops that provide immersive experiences exploring Visual Arts, Performing Arts and History and Literary Arts. Designed to inspire creativity, foster cultural appreciation, and build community, each workshop will offer an inclusive and welcoming space where participants of all ages and backgrounds can come together to explore and celebrate culture through artistic expression, movement, and traditions in an engaging, fun, and educational environment!
Check nhccnm.org/events for updates. Note: this program will not be held in January, July, or November.
Please pre-register so we know how many materials to prepare. For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-220-7928 or ElenaD.Baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free community event, $5 donations are encouraged to support the program & purchase supplies.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Reading: Dr. Irene Blea
2026-04-04 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 4, 2026
12:30 – 2:00 pm
NHCC | Salon Ortega
Join the NHCC for National Poetry Month! We are honored to once again host award-winning author Dr Irene Blea. She will be reading from her book of poems, Dragonfly, along with brand-new poetry material.
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE!
In this collection of fifty years of her poetry, Dr. Irene I. Blea brazenly relates her efforts to understand what she thought was wrong with her. She came to an understanding of social and historical factors that misinformed her colonized mind. Decolonization demanded evaluating her mind, body, and spirit. She portrays decolonization as a complex process involving the rejection and redefinition of the colonizer’s language, embracing her own tri-cultural history, and commitment to ongoing learning and growth. This is a process that requires dedication and struggle to create a more just and equitable world. Irene Blea shares her transformation from the prescription of traditional female roles riddled by confusion and conflict to guide us to peace, and understanding of the physical, psychological, and spiritual process that brought her to what it means to be a female human in a sometimes-hostile world.
The author writes: “On January 1, 2024, I opened my eyes and asked into the crispness of my bedroom if I would die that year. I have been obsessed with my death for decades and wrote about it in my autobiography, Erené with Wolf Medicine. The room responded with, ‘I don’t know.’ I decided to rise and make some coffee. I have outlived most of my friends, and several seniors of my extended family. I do not want to die at home on a sweltering summer afternoon when everyone is working and not be found for a week bloated and smelling on the bathroom or kitchen floor. If I must leave this world, it should be after viewing the golden firefly that visits me in my yard each year one more time.
“I am not okay living to a hundred, but do not want to die before I inform you that throughout my life, I wrote much poetry and that I was one of few women at the forefront of Chicano literature. This type of poetry was an important literary movement. Chicano and Chicana poetry was rooted in resistance to class discrimination, racism, and sexism. Early poets of the time created a genre that added to American literature another category. We had unique philosophical, topical, and aesthetic features different from the divisions of genres of the time. This literary movement provided language for comparing, contrasting, and discussing literary words and works, and served as an introduction to the formation of curricula and anthologies.”
Free community event.
Reading: Irene Blea | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Visual Arts Museum: First Sunday Free Admission
2026-04-05 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
10:00 am to 4:00 pm
The Art Museum presents multiple exhibitions in its three gallery spaces each year and welcomes visitors of all ages. Our three galleries showcase artworks from a range of media that focus on diverse subject matter and examine identity and culture.
On the first Sunday of every month, the Visual Arts Museum is free to all New Mexico residents!
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Siempre Creativo: Latin Dance for Seniors
2026-04-08 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
1:30 – 3:30 pm
NHCC | HLA Salon Ortega
Latin Dance for Seniors will feature 4 weeks of Latin dance lessons taught by instructor Carlota Silva. Classes run for four consecutive Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. No prior experience necessary. These classes are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register. Free to attend.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Generously sponsored by AARP New Mexico

Opening Reception: Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action
2026-04-10 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
NHCC | Visual Arts Museum
Join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition Nuclear Past, Present, and Future: Art in Action is a collaboration between the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum. The project examines the impact of nuclear technologies, its devastating human and environmental toll, and the artistic expression and activism of community members advocating for justice.
Free and open to the public!
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Mundos de Mestizaje, Torreón Tours
2026-04-10 - 2026-04-11, 2026-04-17 - 2026-04-18, 2026-04-24 - 2026-04-25 | NHCC Torreón, 1701 4th street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
Fridays & Saturdays
11:00 am
NHCC | Welcome Center and the NHCC Torreón
Admission to the Torreon tour is $2. Tickets are available for advance purchase below or can also be purchased in the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center, depending on availability. Capacity for each tour is limited.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
A Vision of History through Fresco…
Mundos de Mestizaje by Frederico Vigil is a mural housed in the Torreón on the campus of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This monumental fresco depicts thousands of years of Hispanic history highlighting diverse cultural connections between people and places from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. The 4,000 square foot painting is one of the largest frescos in North America.
The digitized imagery of the painting ensures that this culturally significant work can be a sharing and learning experience for students and families anywhere. We invite you to explore the imagery, history and complexities of the Mundos de Mestizaje mural.
Discover on your own by clicking the link HERE. (It may take a moment to load. Microsoft Internet Explorer is NOT recommended. Best experienced with Safari, Firefox or Chrome.)
Mundos de Mestizaje: Torreón Tour | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Saturday Special: Visual Arts Museum Tour
2026-04-11 | Visual Art Museum, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, United States
1:00 pm
NHCC | Visual Arts Museum
Beginning March 14, the NHCC will offer Docent-guided tours of both the Torreón and Art Museum on the second Saturday of every month. Additional Docent-led tours of the Torreón will be held each Friday and Saturday after March 14.
Admission to the museum is free with the price of admission. Tickets are available for advance purchase below or can also be purchased in the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center, depending on availability. Capacity for each tour is limited.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Escribir Escuchar – Hispanic & Latine Writer Series: Roberto Duran
2026-04-11 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 11, 2026
2:00 – 4:00 pm
NHCC | Salon Ortega
Celebrate National Poetry Month with the NHCC! Join us for a combined reading and writing workshop event with prominent Chicano poet, Roberto Tinoco Duran. Duran is a poet, vocalist, and visual artist from San Jose, CA and we are honored to have him share his new book, The Vulcanic Poet: New and Selected Works 1973 – 2023. This event will begin with a reading and book signing, immediately followed by a writing workshop.
Free community event
RESERVE YOUR TICKET HERE!
This event is generously supported by AARP.

Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company: Out of Many, One
2026-04-11 - 2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
April 11 & 12, 2026
7:30 pm Saturday, 2:00 pm Sunday
The National Institute of Flamenco presents Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company in Out of Many, One. The performance showcases five original flamenco works, each representing a distinct process of individuals connecting to a whole: Convergence, Momentum, Inheritance, Embodiment, and Reconciliation.
In Elementos, choreographed by Adrián Santana, earth, air, fire, and water converge as interdependent elements. In Sara Cano’s Camina, momentum unifies energy into forward motion. Inheritance links the individual to culture and tradition in invited guest artist Ricardo Moro’s Marianas. Embodiment integrates memory, emotion, and identity in an untitled solo work by Yjastros Principal Dancer, Carlos Menchaca, and in Ana Morales’ Taranterias, reconciliation bridges opposing forces. Out of Many, One celebrates unique voices, bodies, and perspectives, bringing them together into a single, resonant experience.
$109, $89, $69, $49, & $29* w/ a $2 discount for seniors, students w/ID, children 10 years old and younger, and NHCC Foundation members. *Price includes the NHCC’s $4 box office fee.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

*All NHCC performance/event ticket sales go through the National Hispanic Cultural Center Website. NHCC is a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. You will be redirected to our central ticketing system. DO NOT BUY FROM THIRD PARTIES. If you see a third party app or website, please report it to the Center at (505) 246-2261.

AfroMundo Festival: “Narratives of Power: Myth, History, and the Stories that Shape Us”
2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, April 12, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Literary Reading with Samoan storyteller Gabby Langkilde; Puerto Rican poet, Dr. Eleuterio Santiago-Diaz; and Virgin Islands’ author, Tiphanie Yanique. Followed by panel discussion and Q&A moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Gabby Langkilde is a Samoan storyteller and the founder and executive editor of Pasefika Presence. Born and raised on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, her love for storytelling was cultivated early in life —listening to ancient Samoan legends shared by her grandfather and later crafting her own tales for cousins, friends, and family to enjoy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Harvard College, where she wrote ‘Pasefika Presence,’ one of the first recurring columns in The Harvard Crimson to center Pacific Islander perspectives and issues. After graduating, she returned home to American Samoa and worked as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, and in 2023, she founded Pasefika Presence as an online, submission-based magazine uplifting Pacific Islander stories and art. Rooted in the same commitment to centering Pacific Islander perspectives as her original column, Pasefika Presence began as a way to engage her students in Pacific storytelling and has since grown into an international platform that has published two issues and received hundreds of submissions from creatives across the Pacific and its diasporas. Gabby went on to be awarded a Fulbright U.S. Graduate Award to pursue research in Auckland, New Zealand, and received an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship to complete her master’s degree in Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Today, she continues to guide Pasefika Presence while using storytelling, education, and research to empower Pacific communities and expand space for Pasefika voices.
https://www.pasefikapresence.org
Dr. Eleuterio Santiago Diaz is a poet, professor, and literary critic. Upon graduation from the University of Puerto Rico, Santiago-Díaz worked as a teacher of Spanish, physical education and industrial arts, and as a librarian in Puerto Rican elementary schools. He earned a Master’s degree in Spanish from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University, and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. His teaching and research center on Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean literature examined in light of theories of race, writing and modernity; Latino-Caribbean literature in the United States; and Modern Latin American poetry. Before joining UNM, he taught language and literature in the departments of Spanish and Portuguese and African and Diaspora Studies at Tulane University, at Cambridge Community College and at St. Cloud State University. Santiago-Díaz is the author of the poetry books Árbol de plaza talado en su novena edad (Ciudad de México, Ediciones del Lirio, 2021) and Breaths (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2012), the scholarly book Escritura afropuertorriqueña y modernidad (Pittsburgh, PA: IILI/University of Pittsburgh, 2007), and articles published in academic journals and anthologies such as Revista Iberoamericana, Confluencia, Bilingual Review, Revista de Literatura, História e Memória, and Marvels of the African World: Cultural Patrimony, New World Connections, and Identities (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003). Pending publication, he has several creative projects: the poetry books Kernel and The Mollusk and the Thumb, and a collection of short stories titled El Circo.
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was published in 2021 and on numerous best of the year lists. Monster in the Middle was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and is a finalist for the Townsend Prize. Tiphanie is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas Prize in Caribbean poetry and the United Kingdom’s Forward/Felix Dennis Prize for a First Collection, the novel, Land of Love and Drowning, which won the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction, the Phillis Wheatley Award for Pan-African Literature, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award. Land of Love and Drowning was also a finalist for the Orion Award in Environmental Literature and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. She is the author of a collection of stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, which won her a listing as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5Under35 and the Bocas Prize in Fiction. Her writing has won the Boston Review Prize in Fiction, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize, an Academy of American Poet’s Prize and two Fulbright Scholarships. Tiphanie is also an outspoken activist on behalf of the Caribbean, having appeared on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, and published an op-ed in The New York Times on the US response to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Tiphanie is from the Virgin Islands and is Professor at Emory University.
MODERATOR: Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Director of the Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. She teaches classes and conducts research on Global Black Speculative Fiction, with an emphasis on Afrofuturism and Caribbean speculative literature. Her essays have appeared in a number of journals, including Small Axe, Cultural Dynamix, and Radical Teacher and in several anthologies, including the forthcoming book, The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Visions, where she contributed a chapter that explores the intersections between Caribbean-speculative fiction and Latinx-futurism. Presently, she is editing a book on power, gender, and teaching speculative fiction in the college classroom. Belinda’s edited collection will be published in early 2027.
AfroMundo Festival: Literary Reading: “Narratives of Power: Myth, History, and the Stories that Shape Us” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “True Justice”
2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday April 12, 2026
11:00 am
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Documentary Screening of “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality.” Directed by George Kunhardt, Peter W. Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt. 2019. 1hr 42m. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, follows 30 years of EJI’s work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. The film won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary, and is the winner of the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications’ 26th annual Vision Award and a Peabody Award.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

AfroMundo Festival: “Fight for Equality"
2026-04-12 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Wells Fargo Auditorium, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, April 12, 2026
3:00 pm
NHCC | Wells Fargo Auditorium
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Panel Discussion with Darlene T. Gomez, attorney for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives; Abraham Paulos of BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration); Dr. Estévan Rael-Gálvez, President and founder of Native Bound-Unbound; and Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy for Project South. Moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Darlene T. Gomez is a lifelong native of Northern New Mexico, having been born and raised in Lumberton where her ancestors homesteaded before New Mexico was incorporated into the United States. She has been practicing law for over 19 years and specializes in Indian Law, Complex Family Law, and advocating on behalf of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives (MMIWR). Darlene attended the University of New Mexico School of Law where she first began her pro bono work fighting for clean water in her hometown of Lumberton. She was the inaugural recipient of the Carlos Vigil Scholarship, among numerous other awards while in school. Darlene is tirelessly passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless through her pro bono work. She has been a fierce advocate for primary and secondary victims of the MMIWR crisis since 2001 and spends much of her time organizing rallies, mentoring and advocating for secondary victims, preparing and distributing press releases, and serving as the attorney for 15 families of MMIWR victims. She is a founding member of the New Mexico MMIW Task Force and serves as the general counsel for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Medicine Wheel Ride. She is widely considered a leading expert in MMIWR throughout the US and her persistent efforts on behalf of victims have led to an increase in domestic as well as international media attention for the MMIWR Public Health Crisis
https://dargomezlaw.com/mmiw/
Abraham Paulos is a nationally recognized communications strategist, writer, and advocate who has spent over two decades driving the movement for human rights and immigrant justice. His work centrally focuses on the complex intersection of immigration, race, and criminalization, with a specific emphasis on the unique challenges faced by Black migrants. Abraham currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). His career features influential leadership roles, including serving as the Executive Director of Families for Freedom. He has also been a researcher for Human Rights First and a Program Director for Life of Hope, a community-based organization serving low-income immigrants. A powerful voice in public discourse, Abraham has highlighted systemic issues within the U.S. deportation system through his writing for outlets like Foreign Policy Association, Huffington Post, and City Limits. He has also been featured on major news platforms such as NY Daily News, Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, ABC News and NBC News. Abraham is a Stateless Eritrean refugee born in Sudan and raised in Chicago. He holds an associate’s degree from Harold Washington College, a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and a master’s degree from The New School.
https://baji.org
Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez is the President and founder of Native Bond-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery. He was born and raised in the sovereign landscape of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, where the memories and stories of the complex identities that formed these communities were part of his upbringing on the family ranch, including of “la India Panana,” the Pawnee woman whose story continues to be told by descendants. Trained as an anthropologist, historian, and ethnographer, he received his BA from UC Berkeley and his MA and PhD from the University of Michigan, where he completed an award-winning dissertation on Indigenous slavery in colonial New Mexico. He has served as New Mexico State Historian, Executive Director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Senior Vice President at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His work is rooted in lived experience—holding a woven Diné blanket passed down as inheritance and protection or discovering archival traces of several Indigenous people in his family tree, including Antonia, listed simply as “India” in the 1750 Santa Fe census, and Margarita, an Apache woman named in a lawsuit over her possession.
https://nativeboundunbound.org/home/
Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy Director with Project South, advances a practice of movement lawyering, focused on confronting state repression and dismantling systems of surveillance, incarceration, and deportation. Azadeh has organized for two decades to protect and defend migrants and Black and Muslim communities from systemic lslamophobia, xenophobia, and anti-Black racism. She also provides support to social justice movements in the Global South, from Brazil to Palestine.
Azadeh is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She currently serves on the Advisory Council of the American Association of Jurists. She is the author or editor of several groundbreaking human rights reports as well as law review articles and book chapters focused on movement lawyering, immigrants’ rights, surveillance of Muslim-Americans, and using the international human rights framework as a tool for liberation. Her writings have appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, TIME Magazine, Boston Review, Slate, and Los Angeles Times, among others.

MODERATOR: Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Director of the Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. She teaches classes and conducts research on Global Black Speculative Fiction, with an emphasis on Afrofuturism and Caribbean speculative literature. Her essays have appeared in a number of journals, including Small Axe, Cultural Dynamix, and Radical Teacher and in several anthologies, including the forthcoming book, The Routledge Handbook of Latinx Visions, where she contributed a chapter that explores the intersections between Caribbean-speculative fiction and Latinx-futurism. Presently, she is editing a book on power, gender, and teaching speculative fiction in the college classroom. Belinda’s edited collection will be published in early 2027

AfroMundo Festival: “The Future is Now”
2026-04-13 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Monday, April 13, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Screening of documentary “The Fight to Preserve & Revitalize the Chamorro Language.” Directed by Brian Muna. 2025. 13m. Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include Ashby Combahee, Library and Archives Program Manager at the Highlander Research and Education Center; Darlene T. Gomez, attorney for Medicine Wheel Ride; Gabby Langkilde, founder of Pasefika Presence; and Akilah Martinez, award-winning Diné creative technologist and cultural bearer. Moderated by CHamoru filmmaker Brian Muna.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Ashby Combahee is the Library and Archives Program Manager at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Their work focuses on the documentation and preservation of southern grassroots liberation movements in United States. They are a co-founder of Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history. Ashby started the Southern Memory Workers Institute at the Highlander Center, which is a 5-day popular education workshop sharing skills in public history, archival preservation, documentary arts, and political strategy. They are also a research fellow with the Folk Education Association of America, focused on resourcing Black craftspeople and Black-led folk schools.
Darlene T. Gomez is a lifelong native of Northern New Mexico, having been born and raised in Lumberton where her ancestors homesteaded before New Mexico was incorporated into the United States. She has been practicing law for over 19 years and specializes in Indian Law, Complex Family Law, and advocating on behalf of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives (MMIWR). Darlene attended the University of New Mexico School of Law where she first began her pro bono work fighting for clean water in her hometown of Lumberton. She was the inaugural recipient of the Carlos Vigil Scholarship, among numerous other awards while in school. Darlene is tirelessly passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless through her pro bono work. She has been a fierce advocate for primary and secondary victims of the MMIWR crisis since 2001 and spends much of her time organizing rallies, mentoring and advocating for secondary victims, preparing and distributing press releases, and serving as the attorney for 15 families of MMIWR victims. She is a founding member of the New Mexico MMIW Task Force and serves as the general counsel for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Medicine Wheel Ride. She is widely considered a leading expert in MMIWR throughout the US and her persistent efforts on behalf of victims have led to an increase in domestic as well as international media attention for the MMIWR Public Health Crisis
Gabby Langkilde is a Samoan storyteller and the founder and executive editor of Pasefika Presence. Born and raised on the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, her love for storytelling was cultivated early in life —listening to ancient Samoan legends shared by her grandfather and later crafting her own tales for cousins, friends, and family to enjoy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Harvard College, where she wrote “Pasefika Presence,” one of the first recurring columns in The Harvard Crimson to center Pacific Islander perspectives and issues. After graduating, she returned home to American Samoa and worked as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, and in 2023, she founded Pasefika Presence as an online, submission-based magazine uplifting Pacific Islander stories and art. Rooted in the same commitment to centering Pacific Islander perspectives as her original column, Pasefika Presence began as a way to engage her students in Pacific storytelling and has since grown into an international platform that has published two issues and received hundreds of submissions from creatives across the Pacific and its diasporas. Gabby went on to be awarded a Fulbright U.S. Graduate Award to pursue research in Auckland, New Zealand, and received an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship to complete her master’s degree in Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Today, she continues to guide Pasefika Presence while using storytelling, education, and research to empower Pacific communities and expand space for Pasefika voices.
Akilah Martinez (Glittering World Girl) is an award-winning Diné creative technologist and cultural bearer from the Navajo Nation focusing on the creation of building an Indigenous-based circular economic ecosystem that cycles off of language & culture futurism through video art and XR technology. Akilah’s a 2024 New Mexico Women in Tech Emerging Leader Award, a guest speaker at the MIT Reality Hack in Cambridge, MA and Bridge Innovation Studio UCLA. Akilah’s team, Inkovator, won 1st place for the Snap track at Stanford XR Immerse The Bay 2024 and team, Yeigo, won two 1st place Gold Prizes at MIT Reality Hack 2025.
https://www.glitteringworldgirl.com
MODERATOR: Brian Muna is an established CHamoru filmmaker on the island of Guam with over 10 years of experience in the industry. His filmmaking credits also include commercial work for corporations on island and has also worked abroad for projects filmed in Japan, Taiwan, and had volunteered for a short-form documentary filmed in the Philippines (2017) aimed to support a non-profit organization to support funding for a children’s orphanage. Under his company, Brian Muna Films, he has directed, written, filmed and produced short films, music videos, and documentaries surrounding issues within the island and Pacific region. He has participated in numerous international film festivals, namely the Guam International Film Festival, where was awarded “Best Made in the Marianas” winner with one additional nomination for the films he directed: Luther (2015); Plastic Bag (2018); Madam (2015). In 2020, he was the recipient of the “Best Cinematography” award for the film Bittersweet (2020) at the Mumbai International Cult Film Festival. In 2024 Brian won “Best Short Film” at the 2024 Hawai’i International Film Festival for his documentary “CHamoru A Lost Language.”
AfroMundo Festival: Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion—“The Future is Now” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Arte para Chiquitos: Play, Storytime & Art
2026-04-14 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
10:00 am
Arte para Chiquitos: Play, Storytime & Art | 6 months – 4 years old and their grown-ups
NHCC | Pete V. Domenici Education Building
Arte para chiquitos is a free, monthly program for toddlers and their caregivers. Participants explore and engage in play, dance, music and art. In celebration of Spring, we will explore leaves and create art using ink and paint. Each session begins with music, instruments and play.

Free Community Event. Please register below or call the NHCC Welcome Center at 505-724-4771 for assistance.
This program is generously supported by NM Gas.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

AfroMundo Festival: “Re-imaginings: Power & Transformation”
2026-04-14 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Screening of Puerto Rican documentary “The Bee—A Reflection on Women, Land, and Occupation.” Directed by Nelson Varas-Diaz. 2024. 30m. Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include award-winning afro-diasporic siblings, mulowayi and mapenzi who together comprise Las Nietas de Nonó; Afro-Puerto Rican attorney and former member of the Puerto Rican Senate, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén; Robert Washington-Vaughns, founder of Black Men Flower Project; and Tyeshia ‘Ty’ Wilson, Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor and award-winning Giving Circle expert. Moderated by Latinx, transfeminist sociologist, Amaury J. Rijo Sanchez.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Las Nietas de Nonó are the afro-diasporic siblings, mulowayi and mapenzi. In their creative process, they evoke ancestral memory through personal archives. Their practice incorporates performance, found objects, organic materials, ecology, fiction, video and installation. In 2022, their solo show, Posibles Escenarios, Vol. 1 LNN was presented at Artists Space, New York a grouping of newly commissioned multimedia works that extend Las Nietas’s explorations of themes such as processes of expropriation and colonial violence against Black communities and the development of microhistories in relation to geopolitics. They created Ilustraciones de la Mecánica in 2016 – a multimedia installation that was later commissioned by the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018) and the 79th Whitney Biennial (2019). They have received the Latinx Artist Fellowship from the US Latinx Art Forum (2022), the Rome Prize in Visual Art from the American Academy in Rome (2022), the United States Artist Award (2018), The Art of Change from the Ford Foundation (2017), and the Global Arts Fund from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (2017 & 2020). Their art has been shown in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. In 2019, they co-founded Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, an organization run by Black womxn, where spaces for environmental and racial justice are created in the face of industrial developments that threaten their barrio of San Antón, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. https://www.lasnietasdenono.com
Anna Irma Rivera Lassén, an Afro-Puerto Rican attorney and former member of the Puerto Rican Senate, was born on March 13, 1955, in Santurce, San Juan. Throughout her career, Lassén has been a steadfast champion for human rights, particularly focusing on issues of discrimination, gender violence, and socio-economic rights. Her commitment to justice was exemplified in her successful challenge against discriminatory courtroom attire rules in the 1980s, setting a precedent for gender equality. Her expertise and advocacy have garnered recognition from prestigious organizations, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Lassén’s leadership extends beyond legal circles. From 2012 to 2014, she was the head of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, making history as the first Afro-Puerto Rican and openly lesbian individual to hold the position. Her tenure was marked by significant advancements in promoting gender equality and access to justice. Additionally, she has contributed to the legislative process, actively participating in assessments of bills aimed at advancing human rights protections in Puerto Rico. Her impact and dedication have been acknowledged through numerous awards and honors, including the “Medalla Senatorial Capetillo-Roqué” from the Puerto Rican Senate and the “Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize.” Notably, Anna was recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Year in 2023, further underscoring her influential contributions to society.
Robert Washington-Vaughns: Founder of Black Men Fower Project
Tyeshia ‘Ty’ Wilson is a Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor, an award-winning giving circle expert, and a catalyst for collective action, driven by the belief that everyone is a philanthropist capable of creating positive social change. As Senior Director of Community at Philanthropy Together, Ty leverages her lived experiences and expertise in community organizing and coalition building to architect the organization’s global partnership and engagement strategy, connecting diverse stakeholders to expand the collective giving movement. An energizing public speaker and bold advocate for collaborative, community-led philanthropy, Ty has spoken to thousands of people and trained hundreds through Philanthropy Together’s flagship Launchpad programs. She serves as immediate past Chair of HERitage Giving Fund, the first Black giving circle in Texas, and sits on multiple national boards including RegisterHER, Philanos and the Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy. Ty’s strategic, community leadership experience spans hospitality, fundraising, and government sectors. Notably, she previously served as Assistant to the City Manager and Chief of Staff at the City of Dallas. A proud Dallas native with deep Texas roots, Ty holds degrees from UT Arlington and UNT Dallas, and an Executive Certificate in Philanthropic Leadership from Georgetown University
MODERATOR—Amaury J. Rijo Sanchez: As a Latinx, transfeminist sociologist, Sanchez’ work explores the intersections of decoloniality, activist coalitions, and cultural and creative expressions, with focus on Latinx populations. Guided by a decolonial feminist lens, he investigates how feminist organizing and queer artivism resist colonial infrastructures and generate alternative modes of community-building and survival. Sanchez’ research draws from ethnographic methods and critical theory to highlight the significance of mobilization from the margins in shaping more just futures.
AfroMundo Festival: Documentary Screening & Panel Discussion—“Re-imaginings: Power & Transformation” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Stitch Night
2026-04-15 | HLA Conference Room, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
NOTE: This event has been rescheduled for the third Wednesday of the month in April.
5:00 – 7:00 pm
NHCC | HLA Conference Room
Bring whatever knitting, crocheting, weaving, or cross stitch, or fiber art projects you’re working on, and join the conversation with your fellow crafters for an informal craft get-together. If you would like to learn the basics of a particular stitching technique, please bring supplies with you, though we will always have basic crochet and knitting materials on hand for an impromptu demonstration!
Meetings will be in the Conference Room of The History and Literary Arts building from 5:00pm-7:00pm. For young adult and adult audiences.
Free community event. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Siempre Creativo: Latin Dance for Seniors
2026-04-15 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
1:30 – 3:30 pm
NHCC | HLA Salon Ortega
Latin Dance for Seniors will feature 4 weeks of Latin dance lessons taught by instructor Carlota Silva. Classes run for four consecutive Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. No prior experience necessary. These classes are part of the NHCC’s Siempre Creativo program, which provides free multidisciplinary arts programs for seniors.
Please pre-register. Free to attend.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Generously sponsored by AARP New Mexico

AfroMundo Festival: “Food is Power: Cultivating Community”
2026-04-15 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Panel discussion followed by a Q&A. Panelists include Samoan Chef Devynne Fuga Ah-Mai, and Puerto Rican Chef Pau Rocío. Moderated by Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace, Director of UNM’s Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Panel discussion with:
Chef Devynne Fuga Ah-Mai is a community-rooted chef, entrepreneur, and founder of Samoa Food Security, an initiative dedicated to preserving Samoan food traditions while addressing the urgent need for accessible, healthy, and locally grown food. Through her work, she bridges culinary arts with community well-being, hosting food demonstrations, cultural events, and educational programs that uplift local farmers and promote sustainable food systems in American Samoa. Her culinary storytelling highlights the connection between heritage, health, and the environment, making food not just nourishment but also a vehicle for cultural preservation and resilience. As a recipient of Creative West’s Pacific Jurisdiction Artist Fund award, Chef Fuga continues to champion the intersection of art, food, and culture to strengthen her community’s future.
Puerto Rican Chef Pau Rocío is a culinary artist known for conscious, sustainable, and Afro-Antillean cuisine, offering personalized dining experiences, often through her private chef services, focusing on flavorful, creative, and story-driven dishes, as seen on her Instagram @chefpaurocio and website chefpaurocio.com. She started her professional journey around 2019, working in various hotel roles, and now emphasizes food that tells a story.
MODERATOR: Belinda Wallace
AfroMundo Festival: Panel Discussion: “Food is Power”—Cultivating Resilience | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Manifesting the Envisioned”
2026-04-16 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Thursday, April 16, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Artistic presentation by Puerto Rico’s award-winning Las Nietas de Nonó. Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. Panelists include Las Nietas de Nonó; liberation strategist and fabulist c.j Davison; multidisciplinary CHamoru artist Dakota Camacho; and Alabama playwright, performer and cultural worker David H. Parker. Moderated by artist AfroMundo Youth Council member, Lauryn Mills-Bohannon.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
c.j Davison: c.j Davison (they/them) is a Black, Southern, and queer cultural organizer from Birmingham, Alabama. At the root of their work; cj practices art as liberation strategy to fabulate, investigate, and document the world around us through a Black-queer paradigm. As a cultural organizer and artistic facilitator, cj has raised over $2.5 million for artists and organizations led by and serving people living within the margins of the margins. Their work spans the stage and screen from producing and directing plays and musical across the country to creating short-form documentary and episodic projects that reimagine community, care, and liberation.
Dakota Camacho: Dakota Camacho comes from the Matao/CHamoru peoples of Låguas and comes from the villages of Tomhom, Mongmong, and Hagåtña, and descends from the Che’ and Eging clans, and they also have Ilokano lineage. Camacho was born in the lands of the Snohomish and raised in Snohomish, Swinomish, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, and Suquamish territories. They grew up in the Soufend of Seatle where they found their calling for poetry, dancing, and chanting. Amongst the Native peoples of that land, Black, Filipinx, and other Peoples working towards justice on earth, they learned of the transformative potential of culture. Camacho arrived in Guåhan, Låguas (the Mariånas) in the year 2011, to find Matao/CHamoru language and culture teachers. Camacho became friends with Jeremy Cepeda, a fino’ håya language teacher, and Jeremy guided Camacho on yo’ña (their) language learning journey. For many years, Camacho traveled around the world sharing their dance and musical creations, and cultivating relationships with Indigenous peoples in Aoteara, Turtle Island (so-called “North/South America”), Hawai’i, and momentarily so-called Australia and Africa. In 2019, Camacho and Cepeda started the Gi Matan Guma’ collective to give life to their ancestral language and traditions in an attempt to walk the path of ináfa’maolek (peace and equity for all living beings). Camacho started the MALI’E’ project to try and find ways to activate Theory/Memory/Imagining of (Making) Matao [Creativity] through multi-disciplinary art. Today, Dakota is very happy to be working with Gi Matan Guma’ in Låguas and throughout the diaspora.
Las Nietas de Nonó are the afro-diasporic siblings, mulowayi and mapenzi. In their creative process, they evoke ancestral memory through personal archives. Their practice incorporates performance, found objects, organic materials, ecology, fiction, video and installation. In 2022, their solo show, Posibles Escenarios, Vol. 1 LNN was presented at Artists Space, New York a grouping of newly commissioned multimedia works that extend Las Nietas’s explorations of themes such as processes of expropriation and colonial violence against Black communities and the development of microhistories in relation to geopolitics. They created Ilustraciones de la Mecánica in 2016 – a multimedia installation that was later commissioned by the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018) and the 79th Whitney Biennial (2019). They have received the Latinx Artist Fellowship from the US Latinx Art Forum (2022), the Rome Prize in Visual Art from the American Academy in Rome (2022), the United States Artist Award (2018), The Art of Change from the Ford Foundation (2017), and the Global Arts Fund from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (2017 & 2020). Their art has been shown in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. In 2019, they co-founded Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, an organization run by Black womxn, where spaces for environmental and racial justice are created in the face of industrial developments that threaten their barrio of San Antón, in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
David H. Parker (they/them) is a director, producer, screenwriter, playwright, performer, and cultural worker from Birmingham, AL. Intersectionality is at the core of their work, with directing practices rooted in consent and wellness. They have been with the Birmingham Black Repertory Theatre Collective for almost 7 years and now serve as one of its Co-Artistic Directors. They earned their Master of Fine Arts from UCLA and their BA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. David is grateful to claim multilocality, with roots and community in Texas, South Florida, Los Angeles, Baltimore, the Ozarks, and New York. David has directed or collaborated with Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning artists. David has also worked on and Off-Broadway; had their work reviewed in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times; trained at the Highlander Center in the footsteps of cultural organizers like Rosa Parks and Angela Davis; and recently published an interview with André De Shields in Southern Theatre magazine.
MODERATOR: Lauryn Mills Bohannon
AfroMundo Festival: Visual Artist Presentation & Conversation “Manifesting the Envisioned” | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Spirits Rising: Ceremonies & Offerings”
2026-04-17 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Friday, April 17, 2026
7:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Multi-generational, cross-cultural offerings from throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and Virgin Islands. Followed by a Q&A and communal sharing of narratives.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Featuring:
Sherry Aragon
Teresa Karolina
Dakota Camacho
c.j Davison and David H. Parker
Devine Fuga
Moko Jumbie Yisrael Allan Peterson & Troupe
AfroMundo Festival: Spirit Rising: Ceremonies & Offerings | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

AfroMundo Festival: “Together We Heal”
2026-04-18 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 18, 2026
1:00 – 3:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega
2026 AfroMundo Festival: “Futurism: Manifesting the Envisioned”
Featured Regions: U.S. & U.S. Territories: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Mariana Islands
Communal Healing and Talk Circle. Reiki Healers and Curanderas will be on hand to offer free, healing services.
The 2026 AfroMundo Festival is free to the general public with limited seating and includes films, concerts, literature, oral traditions, panel discussions, culinary and other arts to foster a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Learn more at afromundo.org.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Sacred Spring Reiki Collective
Freedom to Heal Program
AfroMundo Festival: Spirit Rising: Healing & Talk Circle | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Film Screening - Mi America: A Journey of Discovery
2026-04-19 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Bank of America Theatre, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Sunday, April 19, 2026
2:00 pm – Special Guest, Isaac Aragon
3:00 pm – Film Screening
NHCC | Bank of America Theatre
“Mi América: A Journey of Discovery is a documentary film that follows an uncle and nephew as they return to Northern New Mexico to reconnect with the land, culture, and community that shaped their family for more than 400 years.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
What begins as a personal journey becomes an exploration of history, identity, and discovery. Through interviews, landscapes, music, and lived experience, Mi América examines the region’s deep religious and cultural traditions, revealing how history has been preserved and passed down across generations.
The documentary also confronts difficult chapters of the past, including the assimilation of children in schools, where students were punished for speaking their native language. It addresses the long history of land grants that were stolen or stripped away, and the resistance movements that emerged in the 1960s as communities fought to protect their ancestral land rights.
At its core, Mi América is about belonging—how culture survives, how memory endures, and how the stories we inherit shape who we are”.
Please join us for a pre-screening performance with special guest, Isaac Aragon, who will open the event. Isaac Aragon is a native New Mexican deeply rooted in blues and soul. Isaacs politically charged musical message promotes love, peace, and social justice. Open your heart, free your mind… And let the healing begin.
Free community event. Please let us know who will be attending below.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Click on photo to enlarge

Opera Southwest: Mosè in Egitto
2026-04-19 - 2026-04-26 | Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts: Albuquerque Journal Theatre, 1701 4th St SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
April 19, 24 & 26, 2026
2:00 pm Sundays, 7:30 pm Friday
NHCC | Albuquerque Journal Theatre
Music/ G. Rossini
Libretto/Andrea Leone Tottola
A sweeping Biblical epic rarely heard in the United States. This visually arresting production features Justin Hopkins (Bluebeard 2023 & Norma 2018) as Mosè, Ashley Milanese in her company debut as Elcia, and Hans Tashjian as Pharaoh. Expect dramatic storms, plagues, and miracles, set to some of Rossini’s most powerful writing. It’s as if The Ten Commandments were an opera!
SUNG IN Italian
-English translations are projected above the stage for all operas-
45 Minutes before curtain, Opera Southwest offers our “Opera Insights” pre-opera talks. These take place in either Bank of America Theatre or Wells Fargo Auditorium, accessible from the shared lobby with the Albuquerque Journal Theatre.
For more information on Opera Southwest please click HERE.
Enhance your weeknight opera-going experience with Taste of Opera – a pre-show dinner and relaxed conversation with Opera Southwest artistic staff members on Friday April 24, 2026. Click here for more information. *Tickets to the performance sold separately from the Taste of Opera.
$29, $49, $69, $89 & $109 with discounts for groups of 8 or more, anyone 30 years old and younger and Opera for All with a WIC or EBT card. Opera for All tickets are limited to 2 per ID and must be purchased at the NHCC box office by calling 505-724-4771 or in person.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
Piano tuning and preparation are provided by Albuquerque Piano Services: albuquerque-piano-tuning.com

*In accordance with the ticketing policies of the event promoter, tickets for this event are not permitted to be advertised or re-sold for more than face value. All ticket sales must be purchased through National Hispanic Cultural Center or accompanying host partner.
*All NHCC performance/event ticket sales go through the National Hispanic Cultural Center Website. NHCC is a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. You will be redirected to our central ticketing system. DO NOT BUY FROM THIRD PARTIES. If you see a third party app or website, please report it to the Center at (505) 246-2261.

Early Childhood Bilingual Storytime
2026-04-21 | NHCC Library, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
10:00 am
NHCC | HLA Library
Stories come to life through art, movement, and more! For children ages 3 to 5 and caregivers.
Bilingual Storytime is designed for children ages 3 to 5 and their caregivers. For school, childcare, or homeschool groups; please reach out to NHCC Librarian Amy Padilla at amy.padilla@dca.nm.gov or the NHCC HLA Interim Program Manager Robin Sánchez at robin.sanchez@dca.nm.gov to find out about group options and available dates. We are unable to accommodate these groups during the Bilingual Storytime on third Tuesdays.
Free community event, generously supported by NM Gas. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

NHCC Book Club: The Anatomy of Magic by J.C. Cervantes
2026-04-22 | HLA Conference Room
6:00 – 7:30 pm
The NHCC invites lovers of literature, folks who love to read, and those who enjoy talking about the history and the vast array of identities that contribute to Latinidad/Hispanidad to join us! We will meet on the fourth Wednesday of every month in the Center’s HLA Conference Room.
For the month of April 2026, the NHCC Book Club will feature: The Anatomy of Magic by J.C. Cervantes:
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!
A young woman learns to embrace all the messy imperfections of life and love with some help from her magical family in this next novel by New York Times bestselling author J.C. Cervantes.
Lilian Estrada seemingly has it all: an ob-gyn star on the rise, a master at balancing work with whirlwind romances and part of a family of fiercely loyal and exceptional women, all bound together by an extraordinary secret. The Estrada women each possess a unique power, and Lily shines with the rare gift to manipulate memories. Yet not even her mystical abilities can shield her from a harrowing event at the hospital, one that sends her powers—and her confidence—spiraling out of control.
Seeking solace, Lily retreats to her family’s ancestral home in Mexico, only to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past—Sam, the first love she never forgot. Nearly a decade since she last saw him, Sam is hardly the boy she once knew, and as old flames spark to life, Lily must navigate the mysteries of their shared history and the depths of her own heart if she hopes to control her unpredictable magic. (Goodreads)
This book is available at the Albuquerque Public Library: 3 copies plus 1 audiobook on Libby, 1 ebook at NM State Library
This is a free community event. Please let us know who will be attending by registering below.
NHCC Book Club | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

UNM Chicana and Chicano Studies- 3rd Annual Gran Baile: Backyard Baile
2026-04-24 | Salón Ortega, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Friday, April 24, 2026
5:00 – 10:00 pm
NHCC | Salón Ortega and Fountain Courtyard
UNM Chicana and Chicano Studies presents the 3rd Annual Gran Baile: Backyard Baile, alongside Arte por Vida and National Hispanic Cultural Center.
Please join us in welcoming our New Mexico community members to the Arte por Vida Series celebrating our New Mexico art and culture through Music with guest performances by The Dwayne Ortega Band. This gathering of communities supports our education through the arts and collaboration. This event is free to the public, but limited space is available.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE!

Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque: Día del Libro
2026-04-25 | NHCC Campus, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque: Día del Libro
Saturday, April 25, 2026
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
NHCC Campus
Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque celebrates International Book Day, Día del Libro, with an outdoor event open to the public, featuring a variety of activities. The centerpiece of the event will be a fair featuring booth from independent Albuquerque bookstores offering books in both Spanish and English. The Center will present the first 50 attendees with a complimentary book and a rose.
Free Community Event
Activities Include:
Día del Libro
Saturday, April 25, 2026
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
NHCC Campus
Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque celebrates International Book Day, Día del Libro, with a free outdoor event that is open to the public featuring a variety of activities. The centerpiece of the event will be a fair featuring booths from independent Albuquerque bookstores offering books in both Spanish and English. The Center will present the first 50 attendees with a complimentary book and a rose.
Free Community Event
Activities to include:
10:00 am: Opening ceremonies with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Guest of Honor; Patricia Pinzón, Cónsul General of México in Albuquerque; Zack Quintero, National Hispanic Cultural Center Executive Director; Carlos Madrid, Director of Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque; Master of Ceremonies and former Poet Laureate of the City of Albuquerque, Jessica Helen López.
11:00 am: Peruvian Dance and Music performance by Peru-Dance Abq, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Peru in Denver. Main Stage.
11:00 am: Docent-guided tour of the NHCC’s Torreón fresco, Mundos de Mestizaje. NHCC Welcome Center
11:30 am: Free demonstration Spanish class, honoring not only World Book Day but also Spanish Language Day—both celebrated on April 23. Instituto Cervantes, Rm. 128
12:00 pm: Poesía on the Plaza, a poetry session hosted by local group Chicharra Press, featuring local poets Marcial Delgado, Manuel González, Kristin Patton, Zach Kluckman, Jessica López, Marissa Prada, and students from Native American Community Academy. Main Stage.
1:00 pm: Film screening of the Spanish film, El jugador de ajedrez (2017), which will feature a Q&A with producer Juan Antonio Casado—an event organized by the Spanish Resource Center of the Embassy of Spain in Washington. Bank of America Theatre, Roy E. Disney Center for the Performing Arts.
1:30 pm: Tablao flamenco, sponsored by the National Institute of Flamenco. Main Stage.
2:00 pm: Lecture. Cancionero Huehuetenango, on sacred and secular music from the highlands of Guatemala, with Jonatan Alvarado and Ariel Abramovich. Instituto Cervantes, Rm. 128
2:30 pm: Reading with Mexico—an exciting literacy-promotion event with word games, puzzles, and a raffle of 10 bikes for children and teenagers, with music by Mariachi de San José High School, in collaboration with the Consulate General of México. Main Stage.
3:00 pm: Guided tour of the NHCC’s History and Literary Arts Library with Amy Padilla, NHCC Librarian. History & Literary Arts Bldg.
4:00 pm: ¡Viva México!, an unforgettable celebration of Hispanic culture and Mexican independence, spotlighting the huapangos that embody Veracruz’s African and Andalusian roots, with support from the Consulate General of México. Wells-Fargo Auditorium, Roy E. Disney Center for the Performing Arts.
4:00 pm: Music in Spanish. Main Stage.
Special thank you to our sponsors and partners!

Día Del Niño
2026-04-25 | Domenici Education Building, 1701 4th Street SW, Albuquerque, NM, 87102
Saturday, April 25, 2026
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
NHCC | Domenici Education Building
Join us for a day of celebrating the youth in our community during this free event for families of all ages and sizes! Enjoy music, performances, a petting zoo, arts and crafts, and a youth art market.
For more information, please call or email Elena Baca at 505-246-2261 or elenad.baca@dca.nm.gov.
Free Community Event, sponsored by New Mexico Gas.
Register for free here!
