Meet the Entertainment of the 2015 HOLA Awards – CARIDAD DE LA LUZ (LA BRUJA) and DESMAR GUEVARA

Caridad de la Luz is a Bronx-born performer also known as La Bruja. She is considered one of America's leading spoken word poets. In 2014 she was awarded Comité Noviembre’s Puerto Rican Women Legacy Award, in 2013 The Edgar Allan Poe Award for excellence in writing from The Bronx Historical Society and honored as a Bronx Living Legend by The Bronx Music Heritage Center.  

This Renaissance woman has performed internationally including The Apollo, The Museum of Natural History and the famed Nuyorican Poets' Café where she began her career. The New York Times called her "a juggernaut" after the off-Broadway run of her musical Boogie Rican Blvd. Her acting career has taken her from stage to film. She has appeared in numerous movies including Bamboozled, Down to the Bone, El Vacilon and Gun Hill Road. 

She has crossed over internationally as a recording artist with her debut album Brujalicious and For Witch It Stands. She is featured on Prince Royce’s award-winning album Phase II and Bobby Sanabria’s Grammy-nominated album Multiverse. Well known for her captivating performance on Russell Simmons' "HBO Def Poetry Jam", she was featured on HBO Latino’s installment of "Habla Women". She works with youth throughout the country teaching poetry workshops, is a board member of Voices UnBroken and a chartering member of Omega Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. - Delta Chapter at Binghamton University. Pepatián is a performance arts organization in The Bronx that has produced several of La Bruja's musical and poetic theater presentations such as Young Roots: (Orisha music of Cuba), La Consulta (Puerto Rican Traditional to Contemporary Music) and Shadow Lands (Dance, Poetry, Satire/Comedy). 

She most recently acted in the HOLA Award-winning Pregones Theater-Puerto Rican Traveling Theater production of Betsy! For more information, click here or here.

Desmar Guevara is a seasoned champion of new music idioms, he is also committed to writing experimental and Afro-Puerto Rican music for the theater. In 20 years with Pregones, he has served as composer, arranger and performer of numerous productions, including, La Rosa Roja/The Red Rose (for which he won an HOLA Award) and The Harlem Hellfighters On A Latin Beat, both issued as original cast recordings. He is also the founder and director of chamber jazz ensemble Taller Sicá, with whom he has a full-length CD, Del otro lado del espejo, featuring special guest Danny Rivera.

He most recently served as co-composer and musical director in the HOLA Award-winning Pregones Theater-Puerto Rican Traveling Theater production of Betsy! He also served as musical director in the HOLA Award-winning Pregones Theater-Puerto Rican Traveling Theater production of El apagón/Blackout. For more information, click here.

The 2015 HOLA Awards will be on Monday, October 12, 2015 at the Battery Gardens, in Battery Park at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, in New York City.