Under dark, gray skies, with an intermittent drizzle falling, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. announced the resumption of Bronx Week 2021 on Wednesday, May 6, another welcome sign of things slowly returning to normal, after last year’s celebrations were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

 

Usually, Bronx Week is an annual 10-day series of events whereby The Bronx celebrates the best of the borough. “The fact of the matter is, what we’ve been going through, the last 13/14 months, there was an uncertainty,” Diaz Jr. said. “We weren’t able to do Bronx Week last year. [Now] we’re doing all that we can, as safe as we can.”

 

Events are being scaled back, however, to just eight days this year, from May 8 through May 16. Olga Luz Tirado, executive director of the Bronx Tourism Council, explained that because COVID-19 precautions are still in place, the festivities could not extend beyond a week. “In the past, it’s been 11 days, Bronx Week,” she said. “This time, for this 2021, [it] is a week.”

The good news is that the celebrations do include some in-person events, with limited capacity, such as the Grand Finale Concert which is taking place at Orchard Beach, and which requires pre-registration. Other offerings can be enjoyed from home like the broadcast of past Bronx Week parades, which can be viewed on BronxNet. One event which cannot yet be held safely is the arts and food festival, which usually includes a parade on Mosholu Parkway.

 

As the main sponsor of Bronx Week, Montefiore Health System, along with other health-related entities, is making sure public and personal health issues are a central theme of the festivities. Former Bronx assemblyman, Marcos Crespo, who now serves as a senior vice president for community affairs at Montefiore, was eager to promote its mission of wellness in the community. “We celebrate our long history as the main sponsor of Bronx Week [with] events like Health Day, our COVID Day of Remembrance, and the Bronx Food and Farm Tour, which recognize our frontline workers,” he said.

 

Crespo also sees an opportunity, during the week, for Bronxites to look back, remember, and then, look forward. “As we celebrate, let’s not forget what we’ve been through,” he said. “Not to sound too somber but the reality is, we lost many of our friends and family. We have been through a lot. We need to make sure that we continue to protect our families.”

One of the highlights of Bronx Week is the addition of new honorees to the borough’s Walk of Fame, located along Grand Concourse in the South Bronx. The class of 2021 includes photographer, Joe Conzo Jr., who was featured in a Norwood News story earlier this year on Jan. 22, DJ, Kid Capri, and music executive, Sal Abbatiello.

 

The join actress, Rita Moreno, TV host, Regis Philbin, rapper, Fat Joe, and many others who have been honored every year (except last year) since 1997 for their ties to The Bronx and the significant contribution they’ve made to society. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 15, at the Bronx County Courthouse.

 

Some of the earliest photographs of the young men and women of the Bronx who held block and house parties in the early 1970s were shot through Conzo Jr.’s lens. Acknowledging the support he got from his mother and grandmother as he pursued his love and passion for photography, Conzo described an explosion of a new musical culture that morphed out of humble beginnings.

 

“That’s what I did as a young man in the Bronx; document my surroundings and the birth of a billion-dollar industry that we now call hip-hop,” he said.

Meanwhile, the borough president seemed to be barely able to contain his excitement that all three honorees, this year, had a distinctly hip-hop background. Abbatiello was also recognized for his role as the owner of the seminal, hip-hop club, Disco Fever, located on Jerome Avenue and 167th Street in the Concourse section of the borough. Introducing him, Diaz Jr. couldn’t resist reciting some LL Cool J lyrics. “My radio, believe me, I like it loud / [I’m the man with a] got the musical box that’ll rock the crowd,” he rhymed.

 

The third inductee, Grammy award winning DJ, Kid Capri, who has produced tracks for Snoop Dog, Jay-Z, Heavy D and 50 Cent, was not present at the event. However, the borough president is working to have Capri put his early, turntable talents on display on induction day. “I can’t wait until we induct him, and I’m going to try and bait him into getting on the ‘wheels of steel’,” said Diaz Jr.

 

Some of the highlights of this year’s program line-up include a contemporary dance series, a Bronx fathers’ soccer challenge, a “Building the Bronx” trolley tour which looks at some of the borough’s historical figures, and a cooking demonstration.

 

It’s no secret that The Bronx was hit especially hard by the pandemic, having recorded some of the worst rates of infection and death in the city. The borough president recognized the devastating impact the pandemic has had on Bronxites, before acknowledging that with the recent, gradual decline in infection rates, and the ongoing pace of vaccination roll-out, he can see things gradually returning to normal.

“The best way that we can do it is slowly but surely to celebrate our victories,” he said. “We all know what’s transpired here with the pandemic. We all know all of the pain that it’s caused in our borough. But, nonetheless, it’s time to start opening up. It’s time to start celebrating,” he added.

 

For more information about Bronx Week 2021, visit www.ilovethebronx.com.

 

To access the full calendar of events, click here.