Oaxaca Festival 2024: Everything You Need To Know

July 23, 2024

The Oaxaca Festival Is Back!

We are excited to announce that the Lambertville Library will host the third annual Oaxaca Festival on Sunday, August 25th, from 3:00 to 7:00 pm. A celebration of the rich cultural heritage of Oaxaca, Mexico, this free event is a vibrant tapestry of authentic food, music, dance, art, and activities for all ages. Created and hosted by the library’s Latinas in Lambertville group, the event brings our whole community together to honor and celebrate the culture of our oaxaqueño neighbors.

Music and dance are at the heart of the festival, and we will once again feature live musicians and dancers, including the crowd-favorite pineapple dance performed by Latinas en Lambertville. The eight piece band Orquesta Kachimbo will be coming from New Brunswick, and more surprise performers from the Oaxacan community throughout NJ are coming to bring their music and dance, such as Las Chinas de Bridgeton, who will parade their huge dolls.

Watch last year’s video here.

*We couldn’t make any of this happen without our super volunteers. If you’re interested in helping, visit the library and let us know, or call volunteer coordinator Fran Bardusco at 609-273-5974. You can also just stop by any Thursday between 6:00 and 8:30 p.m. to get involved and/or work on the beautiful decorations that will transform our library for the festival.

This year, we are thrilled to partner with our three favorite Mexican restaurants in town, El Tule, Tacos Tancun, and Buenos Dias Cafe, who will serve a mix of tacos, tamales, horchata, and more. We are also continuing to collaborate with the ACME Screening Room and artist James Dupree.

The Acme Screening Room will be showing two films made in Oaxaca that weekend: the classic Nacho Libre and a current film, La Negrada, about Costa Chica’s Afro-Latino population. Check for their listing. From August 16th through August 31st, join us at Dupree Gallery Lambertville for an exhibition featuring selected works from the Valley of the Gods series and Folk Art imported straight from Oaxaca, Mexico. After the festival, Dupree Gallery will host a concurrent reception on Sunday, August 25th.

We are eagerly counting down the days until we see you at the festival!

More News

Pop in to the Pop-up

We have an excellent City Hall. When they knew we were looking for a place to have a pop-up library, they jumped right in and offered two spaces. One is downtown at the Justice Center for kid programs and other activities. I heard that the Mah Jong group is going strong, but I have yet to stop by. But the other space is right here at City Hall. It’s a lovely, open space, which we promptly filled. See you in the stacks! /Annie

It’s happening!

Would you just look at this! It’s happening! It has begun! This is really exciting news for not only the library, but for the whole community. This grand old building has withstood a lot of wear and tear over the decades, and now the time has come for some much-needed repairs. Brick pointing, roof leaks, and other external repairs are all being taken care of. It’s exciting! See you in the stacks! /Annie

Big Changes at the Library!

With so much thanks to an army of volunteers, staff, and board members, the library was packed up and ready for renovations in an amazingly short time. With breathtaking speed, volunteers came in and packed up the books according to a system that will let us locate any book and the shelf where it belongs after we come back. Honestly, I am so impressed with it all. We are truly blessed to have so many amazing and capable and generous friends here. See you in the stacks! /Annie

Happy Birthday to our Founder, Samuel Stryker!

Today is Samuel Stryker’s 235 birthday! He is our founder! Without Sam, Lambertville might not have had a library as soon as it did. -See you in the stacks /Annie

“Cook What you Have”

It’s no secret that I love cookbooks. I probably love them more than I love cooking, but cooking is a close second. Here at the library, we try to provide a broad base of cookbooks, from classics, to regional, and sometimes the downright unusual. But sometimes a cookbook comes along that is a real standout. And we have a new one, just in. Christopher Kimball’s “Cook What you Have.” See you in the stacks /Annie

The Best Sale in Town!

The Lambertville library has a lot of treasures. A lot of them. Rare books, the art book collection, the gallery space upstairs…so many, too many for just one blog post. This picture is of two of the treasures we have here! This is Franta, custodian and curator of the book sale. She is a treasure! See you in the stacks! /Annie