Lincoln Center Celebrates the Work of Rubén Blades

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As the Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City season ends, global contemporary and classical traditions that reflect New York’s Cultural Diversity are the theme for the venue this fall and winter. A series of free and choose-what-you-pay events begin this September. This year, Lincoln Center honors Rubén Blades- an extraordinary artist whose impact, vision, and values embrace the transformative power of the arts across many of the disciplines represented on campus. Beginning in October 2024, the Center celebrates the living legend

From Tuesday, October 15, 2024, to Tuesday, April 15, 2025, The Lincoln Center hosts ‘Rubén Blades From Panama to New York: The Musical Journey of Rubén Blades’. The impact of Latin music icon Rubén Blades is hard to overstate. At the center of the New York salsa revolution in the 1970s, Blades has since collaborated with rock, jazz, pop, hip-hop, reggae, and salsa artists, and has composed hundreds of songs and dozens of hits known with eloquent, socially charged lyrics, colorful characters, and memorable melodies. As part of the year-long Lincoln Center Visionary Artist series honoring Rubén Blades, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will showcase artifacts and memorabilia from the archives of both Blades and the Library; everything from programs for his Broadway shows to letters between him and Lou Reed, as well as music the two wrote together, will be on display.

On October 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm the Lincoln Center presents Rubén Blades with Boca Livre & Editus Ensemble Rose Theater. Presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center Panamanian music, the artist returns to the Rose Theater, revealing dimensions of his music he hasn’t shared in 20 years. Integrating Brazilian harmony alongside Boca Livre and a classical approach to salsa alongside Costa Rica’s Editus, the GRAMMY Award-winning singer and composer offers a fresh take on his signature AfroCuban sound, performing songs from his albums Pasieros (2023), Mundo (2002), and Tiempos (1999). Rubén Blades with Boca Livre & Editus Ensemble is co-presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and is a part of the year-long Lincoln Center Visionary Artist series honoring Rubén Blades.

On Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 pm the Lincoln Center presents Rubén Blades Is Not My Name (Yo No Me Llamo Rubén Blades) Critically acclaimed director Abner Benaim takes us on a journey through Rubén’s 50-year career, in a documentary film that features interviews with Sting, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Residente, and Paul Simon. The film won the 2018 SXSW Film Festival 24 Beats Per Second and is now presented as part of Lincoln Center’s Visionary Artist series, celebrating the work of Rubén Blades.

For further information on this and the Lincoln Center’s full program, please visit its official website.