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Nuyorican
Poets Cafe
By Carla D. Robinson
It's
hard to say exactly what happened that day in 1974 when a group of
artists - calling themselves Nuyoricans in recognition of their
cultural mélange as Puerto Rican New Yorkers - founded the Nuyorican
Poets Café. In the movie Pinero, poet
Miguel Algarin (immortalized by Giancarlo Esposito) grows weary of the
crew crowding his living room and swiftly unveils a storefront space
as a new place for everyone to create and perform. In reality, the
group's official founding is more elusive.
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© 2002 RLP Ventures, LLC
Willie Perdomo, Former Nuyorican
Grand Slam Champ
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While the colorful,
white-haired Algarin is widely acknowledged as having started it all,
he doesn't take such credit. Instead, the Rutgers University professor
cites himself as only one of the founders of the Nuyorican, along with
close friend Miguel Pinero, the fascinating and puzzling subject of
the eponymous film, poet Lucky Cienfuegos, and others. Whatever led to
the opening of the Nuyorican's original doors on East Sixth Street may
remain forever shrouded in myth, but what keeps its doors open at 236
East 3rd Street (its location since 1980) is no mystery.
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The Nuyorican's Lower Eastside
neighborhood, dubbed Loisiada - "the community" - by its
Spanish speaking residents, is a mixture of ethnicities from Puerto
Rican to Polish, and the Nuyorican seeks to provide a place where such
people can create work that illuminates their experiences. As Lois
Griffith, co-director and a founding poet of the Nuyorican once wrote,
"The journey from the street corner to the page is full of
potholes." The Nuyorican exists to ease the bumpiness of the
road. The Café has helped the careers of Ntozake Shange, Willie
Perdomo, and Paul Beatty, to name a few.
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The organization's signature events
attract international audiences. Its Open Room, where anyone can
perform, was "the first idea," Algarin says in his
introduction to Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café.
"And from this beginning was derived the complex programming that
now goes on at the Nuyorican Poets Café." The spirit of the Open
Room is indicative of the Nuyorican, providing an "open,
generous, embracing attitude" toward performers, in the hope of
nurturing their work.
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Another staple at the Nuyorican is the
Slam, a high-octane spoken word competition. Some are critical of the
concept. Sonia Sanchez questions the humanity of Slams and once said
in an interview, "We should not be on some auction block
somewhere selling our poetry in that fashion." But Algarin posits
that the Slam is a product of ancient traditions from the Puerto Rican
El Trovador to Greek mythology or the African griot. Arguably, Slams
have helped bring poetry back to the forefront of American
consciousness.
In addition to the Open Room and Slams, the
Café presents work by new and established playwrights, offers events
specifically designed for youth and women, hosts concerts, and holds
Fifth Night, a screenplay reading and short film series. For more
information on the Nuyorican Poets Café, visit www.nuyorican.org. For
a sample of the poetry that has emerged from the Café, read Aloud.
Check out Action: The Nuyorican Poets Café Theater Festival to read
plays and performance pieces.M
April 2002
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