Bring Your Dancing Shoes, Bklyn Library's Plaza Swing Series is Back!

Swing through summer with free weekly dance lessons and concerts at Grand Army Plaza.

Bring your dancing shoes, Brooklyn Public Library (BPL)  is inviting you its Plaza Swing Series! The free summer series features live music and dancing every Wednesday at the Central Library Plaza. Each of the weekly dance parties kicks off with a dance lesson at 6:30pm.

On July 18, BPL welcomes StringsNskins, who will take the audience on a journey through the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean, added with an urban twist from Brooklyn. The high energy sets include traditional dances, songs in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, and the message of unity.

Orlando Marin, a contemporary of Tito Puente, Machito, Tito Rodriguez and other mambo-era icons, will set the tone on July 25. "The Last Mambo King" is the only remaining orchestra leader from "New York's golden era of mambo" who still performs regularly.

The following week, on August 1, guitar-virtuoso Matt Munisteri will entertain music-lovers and dancers with ragtime, blues and jazz. His band's wide-ranging repertoire pays homage to the jazz and American-roots spectrum, drawing from artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Madeline Peyroux, Loudon Wainwright and "Little" Jimmy Scott.

The Plaza Swing Series concludes on August 8 with Nation Beat, an NYC-Brazilian collision that brings an infectious, audacious energy to the stage. Nation Beat is an explosion of thunderous Brazilian maracatu drumming and New Orleans second line rhythms, Appalachian-inspired bluegrass music, funk, rock and country- blues.

All Plaza Swing Series shows take place on Wednesdays at the Central Library Plaza, 10 Grand Army Plaza. Dance lessons begin at 6:30pm and live music starts promptly at 7:00pm. In case of rain, shows will be rescheduled for the the next day.