WORD BEAT
LATIN BEAT MAGAZINE

Tradiciones @ The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
October, 2006

AT FIRST, NO ONE COULD HEAR HIM. Miguel Algarin, founder of the The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, stepped back and cleared his throat, apologizing in a half-whisper for a severe case of laryngitis. The crowd, respectfully, leaned in. Then Algarin tipped forward and read, his raspy voice filling the room with a surprising forcefulness.

“Me da miedo sentir tanto calor,” he began, thus ushering in the event, Tradiciones, hosted by the Cafe in recognition of Latin Heritage Month and featuring a line-up of poets, musicians and dancers.

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which has been the heart and soul of poetry in the East Village since its inception in 1973, has helped launch such high-profile artists as Sarah Jones, Willie Perdomo and Saul Williams. This new generation of poets have built on a founding community that includes such luminaries as Pedro Pietri, Amiri Baraka and founder Miguel Algarin.

It is fitting that this column opens with a performance at the Cafe that so seamlessly showcased the combination of poetry (the written and spoken word) with music (the rhythmic and tonal heart of language.) As host A.B. Lugo said, “As Latinos, music is so inherent in our life.” And, indeed, throughout the evening, the musicality of language carried the event forward as performers pushed the boundaries of tradiciones and explored the many aspects of Latino life in New York city.

Edwin Torres began the line-up, ranging from a careful, composed delivery to a wonderfully playful fusing of vocal percussion and words. At one point, his voice rose to a shrill song-like fire of nonsensical sounds, to which the crowd howled and clapped.

“My Spanish is kind of invented,” Torres said before the piece. This focus on Spanglish continued as El David worked the stage with conguero, Luis Perez, providing rhythm.

“Yo soy boriqua!” El David shouted, “son of an Indio, Africano” as Perez provided a light, even texture to the words. Later, El David confronted the idea of what defines “a real boriqua,” reminding us that “Neither Spanish nor English is our native tongue.”

Next, Caridad de la Luz, aka La Bruja, took the stage bringing a high-energy delivery broken by moments of casual dialogue with the crowd. “I’m a non-denominational bruja,” she said at one point. “I believe in the religion of love.” And this sense of homegirl humor and serious social purpose, lifted her performance to become a highlight of the evening. Her poetry was grounded in MC rhyming and purposeful pauses. Finally, she closed her set with a volume-crushing song from her album, Brujalicious, in which the chorus chants, “A Nuyorico! / Bienvenido / Somos Amigos / A Nuyorico!”

Singer Anthony Rodriguez bridged the poets nicely, with a series of songs that included ballads and flamenco. Throughout his set The Santa Luz Dance Company filled the stage with dynamic, electrifying movements, finally finishing with a heart-thumping number, called “Work.”

The final performer was Emanuel Xavier who read his work over the rhythmic guitar playing of Henry DGuevaras. Both performers seemed tentative at first, careful to leave room for the other, but as they continued the set (especially when DGuevaras sang between Xavier’s spoken verses) the guitar emerged as a complementary force to the words and both performers soared powerfully. As Xavier read, “Nothing is too difficult to consider for poetry,” and his poems testified to this, shifting between issues of cultural identity, sexuality and the aftermath of abuse with careful phrasing and occasional humorous twists of language (such as, “I’m as American as lemon meren-GUE pie!”).

Host A.B. Lugo closed the night with a sharp and loving critique of hip-hop, saying “we went from irreverent / to irrelevant.” Fortunately for poetry, with events as varied, unpredictable, and timely as this one, its relevancy (and necessity) seems more apparent than ever. As a verse from Xavier’s poem, “Legendary,” goes:

There are Gods amongst us in these ghettos so black, so brown, so fierce, so beautiful, so bright Look up towards the heavens and pray then look at yourself in the mirror and say 'Stars are not only found out in the sky but in ourselves'

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