VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm
Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
|
2008 Nuyorican National Slam Team |
And
I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we go to New York City to visit the
thirty-five year old Nuyorican Poet's Café on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
(Poem)
READER:
I search the chemistry of specific
emotions,
a combination of earth and air
that evokes the vital detail,
the phrase that heats the frying
pan,
the look that smiles,
offering signals that localize,
where I am, and clarify what I see.
I'm child of the Electronic
Frontier.
I learn off the radio waves
of 98.7 Kiss F.M. salsa/disco jams,
that come from a Sony,
bought even though I need a coat,
even though I'm behind on my
payments
for the Trinitron Remote Control
Color T.V.
that I picked up at Crazy Eddie's
last month.
I'm child of the Columbia Space
Shuttle,
and I need to know all the
electronic gimmicks
invented yesterday
that are already primitive cousins
to those developed today
from eight to five P.M. in Japan.
VOICE ONE:
|
Miguel Algarin |
That
poem, "Electronic Frontier," was written by Miguel Algarin. The native of Puerto Rico is a founder of one
of New York City's oldest poetry centers -- The Nuyorican Poets Café. Nuyorican is a mix of the words "New York" and
"Puerto Rican." It describes Puerto
Ricans in America, whether they are in New York or not. The Nuyorican Poets
Café is a non-profit arts organization in Manhattan.
Miguel
Algarin is sitting in his special seat at the end of the bar in the Café. He has a deep warm voice. He appears exactly as a poet should -- dreamy
and intellectual, emotional and distant, humorous and dark.
VOICE TWO:
The
Nuyorican Poets Café is in the Loisaida neighborhood of Manhattan. Its borders are debated. Generally, however, they stretch from
Fourteenth Street on the north side, Avenue A on the west, Houston on the south
and the East River. Loisaida is a "Spanglish" term, or English with a Spanish
sound. Loisaida means "Lower East Side." The area is also known as Alphabet City, and
sometimes considered part of the East Village.
Historically, the Lower East Side has been home to poor
immigrant populations. The area has seen
German, Jewish, Polish, Italian and Irish populations come and go. In the forties, Puerto Ricans arrived. And this group stayed.
Loisaida
was one of New York's most dangerous neighborhoods in the nineteen seventies
and eighties. It was filled with illegal
drug sellers and users. The drug trade led
to other crimes including stealing and violence. The crime became so bad in Loisaida that its
lettered avenues got nicknames. Avenue
"A" was for assault, "B" was for battery, "C" was for coma and "D" was for
death.
VOICE ONE:
Loisaida
was poor and dangerous. But the
neighborhood was also home to undiscovered poets, playwrights, and musicians. These
included Miguel Pinero, writer of the award-winning Broadway play "Short
Eyes." He abused drugs and was jailed
for robbery by the time he was a teenager. His work speaks to the short, hard
life he lived. Mister Pinero died of
alcohol-related disease in nineteen eighty-eight at the age of forty-one. He was a co-founder of the Nuyorican.
The Reverend Pedro Pietri was another. A former soldier in the United States Army,
the Puerto Rican native wrote protest poems and plays about civil rights issues
in America. His work and his
performances were always exciting. He
wore clothes of a Christian clergy member and called himself "Reverend." He
died of cancer at the age of fifty-nine.
VOICE TWO:
In
nineteen seventy three, Miguel Algarin opened up his apartment to these men and
other artists. They would gather to read
their work and discuss social issues. His
home became very crowded quickly. And
there was another problem.
Miguel Algarin was working as a professor of English at
Rutgers University in New Jersey. "The
thing about poets," he says, "is they like to stay up and talk until about four
in the morning. Well, that is when I
would be getting up to get ready for class." He says he realized it was time to find a
separate space where the poets could gather and he could still get some sleep.
|
Reverend Pedro Pietri helped found the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe.
|
At
first, the Nuyorican moved to a rented space on Sixth Street in Loisaida. Then
Miguel Algarin and the others were offered a nearby building on Third Street
between Avenues B and C. Ellen Stewart, an experimental theater founder, owned
the building.
This
local arts supporter saw the promise the Café held for new poets. So, she sold the building for only one
dollar. The Nuyorican Poets Café remains
at Two Thirty-Six East Third Street today. However, in two thousand six, New York City officials renamed Third
Street in Loisaida "Reverend Pedro Pietri Way."
(MUSIC)
ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA:
"The mission of the Café has always been to support and
nurture the arts of the spoken word. So
poetry, plays, screenplay readings, and we've expanded to music and visual
arts. Our deepest concern is to serve
the underserved communities; the people who don't normally get access to arts
in the city. Poor people, youth, people
of color, so we try to keep our prices very, very low. We try to speak to those communities and
provide them with artistic experiences that they can relate to."
VOICE ONE:
That is Roland Legiardi-Laura, a poet, filmmaker and member
of the Café's board of directors. And he
leads many of the Café's educational projects.
One
of those he is especially proud of is the Nuyorican Power Writers Program. The year-long program involves at-risk children
in troubled New York City schools.
Mister Legiardi-Laura, poet and writer Joe Ubiles and arts education
expert Amy Sultan founded the program in two thousand one.
The program aims to empower young
people by making them masters of language and reading. The Power Writers' motto is: "If you don't
learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for
you." Roland LeGiardi-Laura says life
feels out of control for a lot of the children he works with. He says the program can help them take
control, make changes and imagine a future. They can become "warriors of words."
VOICE TWO:
Mister LeGiardi-Laura's first Power Writers class was in
the Bronx area of New York City. He opened
it by telling the children: "The prisons in our country […] are filled with people
who can't read or write or speak well. In fact, this is the single most common
distinguishing characteristic of an American prisoner -- illiteracy. Not race,
not economic background, not an abusive childhood. If you want to have power in this society you
must master the three literacies […] this is a class about power, your power."
The Power
Writers program is the subject of "To Be Heard," a film that will be released
soon. It was paid for by the public television network.
VOICE ONE:
|
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
|
Currently,
the Nuyorican Poets Café is best known for its poetry slams. They are held Wednesday and Friday nights. Poetry
slams are competitions where poets perform their poems in front of an audience
and judges. The poems can be no longer
than three minutes and are rated from zero to ten, ten being the best score
possible.
Former
Nuyorican board member Bob Holman brought slam to the Café from Chicago,
Illinois, where it was born. The first
slam at the Nuyorican was held in nineteen eighty-nine.
VOICE TWO:
At
a slam earlier this month, one poet performed a piece about a girl with a very
troubled mother. Here is part of it.
"I
used to try on Mommy's jeans, just to see how they'd fit on me. They were
always too big for me, but I knew in my heart, that it was Mommy's jeans that
help me be the best Mommy that I could be.
But
now, Mommy wears my jeans, adorned with glitter belts and shirts that say
hottie and sexy. You see, my Mother's not a hottie nor is she sexy. She's more than that. She's beautiful.
I
just don't think anyone's ever told her so. She's cocoa brown with the red
undertones. She's got the night sky in
her eyes, but she wears glitter shirts so she can shine. Not knowing that she's got the shine of the
stars and moon in her eyes. Fire on her
lips, Cherokee in her blood and Zulu in her hips, she's a Goddess, who has
never been told."
VOICE ONE:
The Café also has hip-hop poetry and music events,
poetry readings and theatrical productions.
And Executive Director Dan Gallant says there is room for
expansion. The Nuyorican Poets Café is
in a three- level building. Mister Gallant says the two top floors could be
turned into rooms for workshops or studios or more performance space.
All in time, he says.
Mister Gallant notes that the Nuyorican is very lucky as a non-profit
organization to own its own building, especially in a recession. "We don't have to worry about paying rent,"
he says. "We still can keep our entrance prices low. We don't depend so much on money from donors."
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, Loisaida has changed. It is now a desired place to live. Crime has been reduced. Housing prices have increased.
There are still some public housing apartments for poor
people, but many fewer than in the past.
Developers have bought a lot of empty properties and have re-built
costly apartments. There are many popular
restaurants and stores in the area.
The
Nuyorican Poets Café looks and feels a lot like it did many years ago. But Dan Gallant did get the Café to modernize
one way this past year. "We now accept
credit cards," he says proudly.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This
program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Our reader was Mario Ritter.
I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And
I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week
for This is America in VOA Special English.