Odunde or Puerto Rican Day Parade?

Every 2nd Sunday in June, I’m torn. Do I go to the Puerto Rican Day Parade on 5th Avenue in New York, or do I stay home and go to the Odunde Festival on South Street in Philly.

Here is the run down on both.

Odunde

The organizers of the ODUNDE African and African-American Festival today announced a four-day schedule of events, beginning on June 9, 2011, in celebration of its 36th Anniversary.

The activities will culminate on Sunday, June 12, with the annual centerpiece, the ODUNDE Festival, itself, which will take place, as it always has, along South Street, here, from 20th to 24th Streets, and from 23rd and Lombard, to Grays Ferry Avenue and Christian Street.

The free, outdoor festival, whose central theme is rooted in the traditions of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, will feature a wide variety of vendors, craftspeople, artists and performers.

As many as 500,000 persons, drawn from throughout the Greater Philadelphia area and the mid-Atlantic region, are expected to attend and participate in the events.

Click HERE for more

The National Puerto Rican Day Parade

The National Puerto Rican Day Parade (NPRDP) takes place annually along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on the second Sunday in June, in honor of the nearly 4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico and nearly 4 million people of Puerto Rican birth or heritage residing in the United States.

Originally, the Desfile Puertorriqueño, Inc., was born of the imperative necessity of translating Puerto Rican achievements into a visible demonstration of the dynamism of the Puerto Rican community, in order to achieve Puerto Rican unification and support all the other Spanish-speaking people.  The first parade was held on Sunday, April 13, 1958, in Spanish Harlem “El Barrio”.  The second parade was held for the first time along Fifth Avenue in New York City. (In 1980 was incorporated the New York Puerto Rican Parade, Inc. , a successor of the Desfile Puertorriqueño, Inc.)  

This new organizational structure not only expanded the scale of the parade itself but enhanced its ability to promote cultural awareness, education, leadership and community engagement among Puerto Ricans.  

Click HERE for more