The Art of Remembrance
Días de los Muertos
at L10 Arts & Cultural Center
10 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, New York
Join us in honoring and celebrating the lives and memories of our ancestors through a series of free community programs.
The Art of Remembrance: Días de los Muertos offers interdenominational and multicultural opportunities to explore grief, death, mourning, remembrance, and the many ways we celebrate and honor those who have passed.
Joining us in celebration is the residents of L10 Arts & Cultural Center: Brooklyn Public Library’s Library Arts & Culture, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) and 651 ARTS. Through art, reflection, storytelling, and community gathering, The Art of Remembrance invites us to consider the ways we remember, mourn, celebrate, and carry forward the lives of those we have lost.
scroll for full programming below
October 15-November 5, 2026
Community Ofrenda Visiting Hours
Monday-Friday, 11am-5pm
October 15, 2026
Días de los Muertos Opening Ceremony
Hi-ARTS at 5pm
November 1, 2026
Días de los Muertos Altar Activations
Hi-ARTS, 2-6pm
November 5, 2026
Closing Ceremony
Hi-ARTS & 651 ARTS, 5-8pm
Inspired by the vibrant traditions of Mexico and other Central American communities, Días de los Muertos is a multi-day holiday in which families and friends gather to remember loved ones who have passed away, celebrate their lives, and keep their memories alive. A central tradition is the creation of altars, or ofrendas, adorned with photographs, food, candles, marigolds, and other meaningful mentos to invite the spirits of the departed to join in celebration.
Community Altar Visiting Hours
This community altar will serve as a collective space for remembrance, reflection, meditation and communal mourning. We invite you to visit and contribute offerings for a loved one. You are invited to bring photographs, a cherished memento, flowers, a poem, drawing, or piece of art. Audiences can also expect guided prompts for prayer, affirmations, and guidance on how to engage.
Open flames are prohibited in the building. You are welcome to bring a battery operated candle.
If you would like us to print a photograph of a loved one on your behalf, please submit their photograph here.
October 15-November 5, 2026
Hi-ARTS | 4th Floor
Altar Visiting Hours
Monday-Friday, 11am-5pm
Opening Ceremony
Join us in blessing our ofrenda with one another in community. The evening will begin with altar meditations curated by spiritual curator, coach and nomad Donny, and a blessing of the altar lead by Rasu Jilani, Priest of Yemaya and Oya. Janis Russel, Director of the Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble will lead us in song, and the evening will conclude with closing remarks by Hi-ARTS Executive Director, Aaron L. McKinney.
Free & Open to the public
October 15, 2026
Hi-ARTS 5-8pm
4th Floor
Ceremony Program
Altar Meditations by Donny
Altar Blessing by Rasu Jilani,
Priest of Yemaya and OyaThe music still lives! with Janis Russell,
Director of the Lafayette Inspirational EnsembleMarigold Folding with MJ Martinez,
Hi-ARTS Marketing Associate and Altar CuratorClosing Remarks by Aaron L. McKinnney,
Hi-ARTS Executive Director
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Spiritual curator, couch, and nomad
Donny (he/him) is a visionary, a multidisciplinary starlight of talent, created to heal and transform the world, with every project, every interaction, and every intention. Working professionally as a Creative for over 15 years has given him the platform to do and pursue all that he loves, with tireless vigor. Founder & Curator of Spirit & Flow, he endeavors to normalize access to spiritual wellness, collective harmony and alignment of the mind, body & spirit.
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Executive Director, Brooklyn Arts Council
Priest of Yemaya and OyaRasu Jilani is a self-described Social Sculptor, Cultural Producer, and an expert at convening people, designing cultural experiences, and building synergy around shared values and practices. His practice investigates the intersection between art, culture and innovation, justice, purpose, and civic engagement as a way of generating creative ecosystems
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Director, Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble
Since 2001, Janis Russell (she/her) has been the Director of the Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble, a multi-racial, interfaith choir based out of LAPC. She is also a nationally known jazz and blues singer in her own right. She is most known for her moving contralto tones, but her vocal range spans from soprano to baritone, and she is equally comfortable in jazz, gospel, country, and classical.
Download our Días de los Muertos Reading List.
Curated by our partner and neighbor, Brooklyn Public Library’s Library for Arts & Culture.
Altar Activations
Ceremony and ritual continue with an afternoon of Altar Activations. Donny’s meditations will continue to fill the space for those looking for a moment of guided calm. Hi-ARTS Marketing Associate and Altar Curator MJ Martinez will host shrine-making and marigold folding for visitors of all ages. Hi-ARTS Alumni Tanya Birl-Torres will lead a movement workshop, and Eingel Manuel will host several tarot reading workshops. After a performance by Hi-ARTS Alumni Raquel Almazan, the evening will conclude with open time to engage with the altar and one another.
In between activities, visitors are invited to mingle, meditate, pray, journal, tend to the altar, and/or participate in shrine making and marigold folding.
The Movement Workshop has limited capacity, and while drop-ins are welcome, we recommend registering in advance to guarantee your spot.
Free & Open to the public
November 1, 2026
2-6pm
Hi-ARTS, 4th Floor
Activations
2-6pm: Altar Meditations by Donny
2-6pm: Shrine Making & Marigold Folding with MJ Martinez,
Hi-ARTS Marketing Associate & Altar Curator3pm: A Celebration of Movement & Memory
with Tanya Birl-Torres & The Zora Project3-5pm: Tarot Reading with Eingel Negron
4:15pm: Performance by Raquel Almazan
6pm: Closing Remarks by Aaron L. McKinnney,
Hi-ARTS Executive Director
A Celebration of Movement & Memory
with Tanya Birl-Torres & The Zora Project
3pm at Hi-ARTS
Free with Registration
This movement workshop invites participants into embodied practices of ancestral connection through folktales, ritual movement, and somatic awareness. Grounded in the practices and methodologies of Zora Neale Hurston's own research into ritual across the African diaspora, we'll move together as a way of honoring those who came before us, activating memory in the body alongside the altar's evolving offerings.
No professional dance experience necessary, just a curiosity and a willingness to be present, in the body and in relationship with ourselves and each other.
The Movement Workshop has limited capacity, and while drop-ins are welcome, we recommend registering in advance to guarantee your spot.
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Tanya Birl-Torres is a leader and teacher who believes in telling stories that move us towards curiosity and connection. She has a passion and a vision to use her artistry to reach a diverse crowd and blur the lines between performer and audience, recognizing that we are all creative by nature of being born. She works at the intersection of art, justice, and systemic change.
Birl-Torres is a New York City–based creative director/choreographer, movement director, systems change facilitator, and mother. In addition to her decadelong Broadway performance career, she has served as the choreographer/movement director on productions, such as the world premiere of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Goodman Theater), How I Learned What I Learned (OSF), Twelfth Night (The Public Theater), The Red Letter Plays (The Signature Theater), Comedy of Errors (Classic Stage company), As You Like It (The Guthrie Theater), and Peter and the Starcatcher (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). As a systems change facilitator, she has worked closely with the National Arts Strategies, Illuminate Network, and Systems Sanctuary through her own company SoHumanity to bring embodied liberatory practice into the world of social innovation, bridging conversations across differences. She has created workshops with world-renowned educator Chris Emdin on Reality Pedagogy as Presencing and co-teaches Creativity and Communication at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Birl-Torres is the recipient of the 2024 MAP Fund Grant, Hi-Arts Critical Breaks Residency, and NoMAA Grantee. She served as the artistic director of the Washington Heights Womanist Arts Festival and the 2023 recipient of the NewYorker 4 NewYork Award from the Citizens Committee for New York City, named as a “woman breaking ceilings in NYC and beyond.” Birl-Torres was a guest choreographer for Cabaret and professor in residence at The University of Michigan in fall 2025, and was lead embodiment facilitator for National Arts Strategies’ The Project 2024 – 25.
@tanyabirltorres | @thezoraproject | @sohumanity | Website
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Altar Curator
Hi-ARTS Marketing AssociateMJ Martinez is a Brooklyn-based visual artist and arts administrator from Los Angeles. Their multidisciplinary artistic practice explores queer Latine identity, memory, and the ways we preserve ourselves and each other through storytelling. Working across collage, zines, shrines, physical and digital media, MJ creates personal archives of lived experience—holding onto the fleeting, the forgotten, and the stories that might otherwise disappear. At the heart of their practice is an interest in archiving as an act of care, connection, and survival, and how personal histories become collective ones through the creative process.
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Artist
Eingel Negron is a death doula and tarot reader with a love of dance, poetry, and storytelling.“I approach Tarot as a mirror with which one sees their own reality reflected back to them. In addition to validating their experience, it often shows them their place in the wider world and puts them in a position to be the author of their own story. In reading for others, I see myself as the one who holds the mirror, interprets the symbols that arise, and teaches others to hold the pen.”
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Spiritual curator, couch, and nomad
Donny (he/him) is a visionary, a multidisciplinary starlight of talent, created to heal and transform the world, with every project, every interaction, and every intention. Working professionally as a Creative for over 15 years has given him the platform to do and pursue all that he loves, with tireless vigor. Founder & Curator of Spirit & Flow, he endeavors to normalize access to spiritual wellness, collective harmony and alignment of the mind, body & spirit.
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Artist & Facilitator
Executive Director, La Lucha ArtsRaquel Almazan (they, she, her) is a Latine identifying interdisciplinary artist, facilitator and activist. (M.F.A. – Playwriting, Columbia University. B.F.A. in Theatre from University of Florida/New World School of the Arts Conservatory). Her eclectic career spans playwriting, devising, performance, Butoh dance, dramaturgy and filmmaking.
Closing Ceremony
in partnership with 651 ARTS
As the holiday comes to a close, join us for a casual yet intimate closing and celebration of a vibrant Días de los Muertos. Fret not — the altar will still be open for visits and another round of thematic programming will follow in Spring 2027.
Free & Open to the public
November 5, 2026
5-8pm
Hi-ARTS & 651 ARTS | 4th Floor
Light refreshments will be served.
The Art of Remembrance is a participatory program rooted in memory, lineage, and artistic practice. Audiences and participants are invited to honor artistic, political, and lineage ancestors, chosen family, and community elders through an evolving altar or ofrenda that serves as a site of grounding, reflection, and intention.
The Community Ofrenda, changes and expands seasonally, responding to time, place, and community, and partnerships, keeping the program responsive and alive. As the visual elements shift, so do the offerings and practices around it – reflecting the ongoing nature of remembrance and the living relationship between past, present, and future.
In Process with
651 ARTS
Since its founding in 1988, 651 ARTS has become a trusted convener of contemporary African Diasporic artistic expression, a champion and nurturer for emerging artists and their work and a vital cultural resource for its surrounding community. As it moves forward, part of 651 ARTS’ mission is to preserve the legacy of Black culture in Brooklyn, celebrate the eclecticism of Black performance, and to pioneer new visions of African Diaspora artists. This year – the transition year – is integral for the institution as it continues to lay the framework that will further help to reinforce 651 ARTS’ role as a leader of African Diasporic culture while also establishing it an incubator for artistic innovation in the 21st century.
651ARTS.org • @651ARTS
Brooklyn Public Library’s Library for Arts & Culture
BPL’s Library for Arts & Culture is an art-centric library, boutique reading room and event space in the heart of Brooklyn’s downtown cultural district. This neighborhood branch is located on the second floor of the L10 Arts and Cultural Center, an innovative public art center that houses three other Brooklyn-based institutions in addition to the Library: Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and 651 ARTS.
The Library for Arts & Culture features a variety of live programming and a special collection of international works including music, plays, philosophy, graphic novels, magazines and more. Plus, the branch offers the traditional library services Brooklynites rely on—books for browsing, laptops and free WiFi.
Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) celebrates the cultural breadth of the African diaspora by connecting the intersectional experiences of African people worldwide through the lens of art, education, and advocacy. Born in 1999, MoCADA grew from the graduate thesis of our founder Laurie Angela Cumbo on the feasibility of an African art museum contributing to neighboring communities. Twenty-five years later, MoCADA is more than a museum.
We instill a sense of pride through representation and access to the arts while delivering on our promise for cross-cultural exchange and other life-sustaining resources. With three NYC locations and numerous programs that extend beyond our physical footprint, we pride ourselves on being a vehicle for social change, an art incubator, and a community bridge that transforms people and neighborhoods near and far.