WaHi Celebrates Dominican Heritage Month With Awards, Art Exhibit

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — An award ceremony dedicated to celebrating Dominican Heritage Month will return to Washington Heights for the second time this Friday.

The 2nd annual Dominican Heritage Awards, presented by Assembly Member Al Taylor's Office and other elected officials, will set up shop at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center, this time honoring six local community members along with the event's theme of "celebrating unity and community."

The awards are one of several ways Manhattanites are celebrating the month-long celebration of Dominican Heritage, which officially became a recognized holiday in 2016.

This year, they will honor the Commissioner of the Division of Human Rights Angela Fernandez, a Ne wYork City Civil Court Judge Denise Dominguez, Catholic Charities' Director of Youth Eddie Silverio, NYPD Chief of Patrol Fausto Pichardo, Manuel Porfirio Reyes Baseball League President Julio Francisco and Zenaida Mendez, director of MNN El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center.

The celebration of the Dominican community also includes an art exhibit at the Maggi Peyton Gallery on Centre Street, which opened this week.

The exhibit features the works of Hector Ureña that "capture both the vibrancy and melancholy of urban life through the lens of the Dominican diaspora," according to the opening night flyer. The exhibit will continue throughout the month of February.

New York City has the largest Dominican community in the United States and the largest in the world outside of Santo Domingo, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. Of the 1.5 million people of Dominican heritage living in the country, nearly half reside in New York.

Here's what you need to know about attending the awards or exhibit:

2nd Annual Dominican Heritage Awards

When: Friday, February 7, 2020

Time: 12 to 2 p.m.

Where: Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center - 530 W 166th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10032

Hector Ureña Exhibit

When: During normal business hours for the month of February.

Where: Maggie Peyton Gallery, 1 Centre St., 19th Floor

Who: Presented by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer