Greetings:

The Eisteddfod takes place in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of the most richly diverse communities in New York City, New York State, and the United States of America. The immediate area around the Renaissance Charter School tends to be Latino (mostly Cuban, Colombian, and Argentinian), but walk seven short blocks to the west and you are in the very heart of New York City's most vibrant Indian, Pakistani, and Bengladeshi community. But Jackson Heights is in no way a segregated neighborhood. In it you will find native born Americans living side by side with immigrants, old and new, from Ireland, the UK, the Philippines, China, Korea, Thailand, West Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, etc., as well as from the Carribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Indian subcontinent.

I suggest that anyone visiting the festival spends some time exploring Jackson Heights, and the surrounding communities of Corona (where Louis Armstrong lived), East Elmhurst (where Malcolm X lived), Elmhurst, and Woodside. You will have a wonderful experience.

--- Steve