La Bruja’s new brew

The Nuyorican poet, playwright, actress and activist known as La Bruja wants you to get that ooh-la-la feeling with “The Bru-Ha-Ha.”

The comedy cabaret show, which starts a three-night run at El Flamboyán theater in the Clemente Center on Thursday, March 15, and features original songs, saucy comedy, guest stars — and food and drink — ushers in a new chapter for the Bronx-born spoken word artist.

“I really wanted to push the envelope, to bring back a certain feeling and a certain era that doesn’t really exist right now,” says Bruja, whose real name is Caridad De La Luz.

“What I’ve noticed is that even with all my intellectual hip hop, my political poetry, my activism, nothing breaks down barriers more than laughter and music.” De La Luz has been a longtime fixture at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and appeared on HBO’s “Def Poetry,” wrote and starred in her 2009 solo show “Boogie Rican Blvd.,” and last year co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical “I Like it Like That.” She also released an indie rap album, “Brujalicious,” in 2005. But laughter happens to be feeding De La Luz’s creative soul these days. Last year, she lost her maternal grandmother, and her other grandmother had to be relocated to Texas after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico. “I made myself a promise that in 2018 I wasn’t gonna cry for nobody, I wasn’t gonna cry anymore. Only privately, of course, for myself when I have to heal,” De La Luz says. “But on a stage? Nah. I’m gonna laugh, I’m gonna make my people laugh, I’m gonna elevate their spirits, because we need it now more than ever.”