Teatro Yerbabruja, grassroots arts group, marks 20 years of serving marginalized communities
Founder Margarita Espada, front center, at the home of Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja in Bay Shore. With her, from left, are some artists who utilize the Bay Shore space: fashion designer John Martinez, filmmaker Jard Lerebours, actor Danielis Farreraa, and actor-dancer Andy Ventura. The group, which celebrates 20 years this month, stand with costumes they are creating for the anniversary gala. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
A grassroots arts group with a mission for social change started in its founder's living room as a way to serve marginalized communities.
Next week, Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a gala celebrating "20 years of BIPOC art," referring to Black, Indigenous and People of Color. A network of artists say the group has played a key role in fostering a multicultural arts community on the South Shore of Long Island.
“Always what brings people here is the otherness. They don’t feel welcome in another space? They come here,” said executive-artistic director Margarita Espada, who founded the nonprofit. “It’s all about how we can build dialogue, how we can bring community together. We can fight ideology, but through art, it’s a different layer of language.”
Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja is also marking the occasion by expanding, with a new pilot residency program. In January, it launched a program that offers artists space, equipment and mentoring to practice their crafts.
The group no longer operates out of Espada's house. Teatro Yerbabruja opened doors to its first physical location in Central Islip in 2014 and has since moved to the historic Second Avenue Firehouse in Bay Shore, a building the group took ownership of in 2023.
The goal is to make a space for artists to “create without judgment,” said Espada of the three-month residency program. “I want this to be a safe space for the artist to fail.”
Espada founded Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja as a nonprofit in 2004 in response to what she described as a lack of multicultural art groups on Long Island. She came to the region in 1996 to attend Stony Brook University, where she graduated with a fine arts degree in dramaturgy — the study of writing, composing or producing plays for the theater.
“When I approached different projects, it was not a welcoming space for me,” she said. “I’m very community-oriented. So I said, ‘OK, I guess it’s time for me to organize my own.’”
She placed an ad in a Latino newspaper in search of actors. They started to hold meetings in her living room. Her first play was about broken identities and included stories about women crossing the southern border.
The group snowballed from there. Named for the yerbabruja, “a medicinal plant from Puerto Rico that flourishes in the harshest of conditions,” according to the nonprofit’s website, the community group has grown into a prominent incubator for artists from marginalized communities to create public art.
The goal is to use the arts to promote social change and civic dialogue, and to “provide opportunities to minority artists through performance, arts and workshops to develop their works,” according to the nonprofit’s mission statement.
Teatro Yerbabruja now organizes the Puerto Rican-Hispanic Day parade in Brentwood and regularly hosts art programs in public places like libraries and schools, including a theater group for bilingual Latin American students at Brentwood High School called El Teatro de los Sueños, or “the theater of dreams."
Around 15 artists regularly work with the nonprofit for a stipend.
“They have proven themselves to be all about serving the community,” said Susan Barbash of the South Shore Restoration Group, the nonprofit that gifted the 1898 firehouse to Teatro Yerbabruja.
Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, 31, of Queens, who has been involved with Teatro Yerbabruja for more than 10 years, highlighted the value of that community-building.
“When it comes down to the impact of your art, developing at a community level is where it all starts,” she said. “It’s through the work that Margarita [Espada] does that people realize how similar their stories are; and because of that, people feel connected. And at the basis of all social justice is people feeling connected to each other.”
Karen Rodriguez, 38, who now lives in Houston, met Espada shortly after immigrating to the United States from El Salvador.
She struggled to find a sense of belonging until she became an early member of Teatro Yerbabruja, where she started hearing “stories from older people in the community that were similar to mine,” she said.
“I learned to love my roots and also to speak up for myself,” she said. “It was everything.”
Teatro Yerbabruja's 20th anniversary gala will be held Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Windows on the Lake in Ronkonkoma. Tickets are on sale at the organization's website.
A grassroots arts group with a mission for social change started in its founder's living room as a way to serve marginalized communities.
Next week, Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a gala celebrating "20 years of BIPOC art," referring to Black, Indigenous and People of Color. A network of artists say the group has played a key role in fostering a multicultural arts community on the South Shore of Long Island.
“Always what brings people here is the otherness. They don’t feel welcome in another space? They come here,” said executive-artistic director Margarita Espada, who founded the nonprofit. “It’s all about how we can build dialogue, how we can bring community together. We can fight ideology, but through art, it’s a different layer of language.”
Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja is also marking the occasion by expanding, with a new pilot residency program. In January, it launched a program that offers artists space, equipment and mentoring to practice their crafts.
Teatro's 20th anniversary celebrations
Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a "Secret Garden" themed gala.
The nonprofit is also marking the milestone with the recent launch of a pilot program to support artists practicing their craft.
Tickets to the Feb. 27 gala are available at www.teatroyerbabruja.org.
The group no longer operates out of Espada's house. Teatro Yerbabruja opened doors to its first physical location in Central Islip in 2014 and has since moved to the historic Second Avenue Firehouse in Bay Shore, a building the group took ownership of in 2023.
The goal is to make a space for artists to “create without judgment,” said Espada of the three-month residency program. “I want this to be a safe space for the artist to fail.”
A lack of multicultural arts groups
Espada founded Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja as a nonprofit in 2004 in response to what she described as a lack of multicultural art groups on Long Island. She came to the region in 1996 to attend Stony Brook University, where she graduated with a fine arts degree in dramaturgy — the study of writing, composing or producing plays for the theater.
“When I approached different projects, it was not a welcoming space for me,” she said. “I’m very community-oriented. So I said, ‘OK, I guess it’s time for me to organize my own.’”
She placed an ad in a Latino newspaper in search of actors. They started to hold meetings in her living room. Her first play was about broken identities and included stories about women crossing the southern border.
The group snowballed from there. Named for the yerbabruja, “a medicinal plant from Puerto Rico that flourishes in the harshest of conditions,” according to the nonprofit’s website, the community group has grown into a prominent incubator for artists from marginalized communities to create public art.
The goal is to use the arts to promote social change and civic dialogue, and to “provide opportunities to minority artists through performance, arts and workshops to develop their works,” according to the nonprofit’s mission statement.
Teatro Yerbabruja now organizes the Puerto Rican-Hispanic Day parade in Brentwood and regularly hosts art programs in public places like libraries and schools, including a theater group for bilingual Latin American students at Brentwood High School called El Teatro de los Sueños, or “the theater of dreams."
Sense of connection
Around 15 artists regularly work with the nonprofit for a stipend.
“They have proven themselves to be all about serving the community,” said Susan Barbash of the South Shore Restoration Group, the nonprofit that gifted the 1898 firehouse to Teatro Yerbabruja.
Jasmine Dorothy Haefner, 31, of Queens, who has been involved with Teatro Yerbabruja for more than 10 years, highlighted the value of that community-building.
“When it comes down to the impact of your art, developing at a community level is where it all starts,” she said. “It’s through the work that Margarita [Espada] does that people realize how similar their stories are; and because of that, people feel connected. And at the basis of all social justice is people feeling connected to each other.”
Karen Rodriguez, 38, who now lives in Houston, met Espada shortly after immigrating to the United States from El Salvador.
She struggled to find a sense of belonging until she became an early member of Teatro Yerbabruja, where she started hearing “stories from older people in the community that were similar to mine,” she said.
“I learned to love my roots and also to speak up for myself,” she said. “It was everything.”
Teatro Yerbabruja's 20th anniversary gala will be held Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at Windows on the Lake in Ronkonkoma. Tickets are on sale at the organization's website.
Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
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