The Denver Public Library’s sixth annual La Llorona Festival will take place Saturday, November 7, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales Branch Library. Presented in tribute to Día de los Muertos, this FREE interactive workshop connects oral storytelling, music, and heritage.
This year’s interactive workshop, Legends in a New Key: From La Llorona to Our Own Ancestral Stories, brings a new perspective to the legendary story.
Departing from past presentations centered on retellings by local authors, the program pairs vocalist, songwriter, and author Felisa “LatinSoul” Hernandez with composer, saxophonist, and cultural arts educator Asia Fajardo-Diamond to explore how inherited stories become music—and how music changes the way we hear those stories.
The artists approach La Llorona as a story whose meaning continues to evolve through the voices and experiences of those who interpret it. Together, they invite audiences to consider the grief, love, longing, sacrifice, and search for belonging within the legend—and recognize connections to their own lives.
Felisa opens with a vocal presentation that brings La Llorona’s emotional journey into focus through tone, phrasing, and silence. Raised between Colorado and Chihuahua, Mexico, she brings a perspective shaped by cultural identity, motherhood, and her experiences as a neurodivergent artist.
Her reflections on being misunderstood and seeking belonging provide a personal lens for the workshop’s exploration of whose pain is heard and how a voice can communicate both vulnerability and strength.
Asia then leads Ancestral Storytelling Through Sound, an hour-long workshop that uses La Llorona’s themes as a bridge to family and personal memories. Her project Hummingbird’s Grandchildren, inspired by her great-grandmother, demonstrates how an elder’s struggles, sacrifices, and teachings can become music.
Asia invites participants to ask: Who in my family has carried grief, experienced longing, or sacrificed for another generation? What sounds could express that journey?
Participants will choose a feeling that connects their story to La Llorona, identify the voices and sounds associated with that memory, and create a four-part story map.
Through melody, rhythm, instruments, and silence, they will explore how music can express loss, love, change, and continuing legacy. Sharing is optional. The program concludes with a reflection on the memories and teachings participants want to carry into the next generation.
1498 N. Irving St., Denver.
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