Nuyorican Poets Café

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a multi-ethnic cultural center in the Lower East Side of New York. Through his poetry events, it gained great importance for the international spoken word and poetry slam scene.

It is the center of the Nuyorican art movement in New York and organizes cultural programs in the fields of poetry, music, hip-hop, video art, visual arts, photography, comedy and theater. Relevant cultural influences came from the Puerto Rican and Latin American and the African American community. It operates as a non-profit organization and is funded primarily through its events.

History

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe was established in 1973 from a literary circle at the home of Miguel Algarin, a writer and professor at Rutgers University. When his apartment the growing number of participating artists and poets could no longer absorb, rented Algarin 1975 a former Irish Pub on East 6th Street, which was christened The Nuyorican Poets Café. The ever-growing audience and the desire to expand one's own cultural programs, led in 1980 to purchase the present building in Alphabet City, located at 236 East 3rd Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

Program

The Cultural Center 's mission is to create a multi-cultural venue, the artists, exhibitions and demonstrations of various art disciplines is a forum - especially those that are under-represented in American culture and the media. The founder Miguel Algarin commented on the cultural and historical context:

"The Philosophy and purpose of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Has always been to reveal poetry as a living art. Even as the eye scans the lines of a poem, poetry is in the flux in the United States. From Baja California to Seattle to Detroit, from the dance clubs with rap lyrics booming to the schools where Gil Scott -Heron plays to the churches where poetry series thrive to community centers with poets -in-residence and coffee houses Throughout the whole of the nation, the spoken word is on fire. "

"The philosophy and purpose of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe has always been to bring the poetry as a living art to the fore. Just as the eye scans the lines of a poem, is the poetry in the United States in the river. From Baja California to Seattle to Detroit, from clubs with booming rap lyrics down to the schools where Gil Scott -Heron occurs, of churches in which to flourish poetry series, up to community centers with poets -in-residence and coffee houses everywhere throughout the country, the spoken word to fire properly. "

Poetry Slam

The cafe has been known in the U.S. and Europe through its poetry slams, which were organized by well-known poetry activists such as Bob Holman or Saul Williams. Authors of this poet - circle took on various individually or as an ensemble toured the U.S., Europe and Germany. So traveled a poet ensemble of Nuyoricans already in September 1994 during a three-week tour of London and other cities in the UK with a total of 16 appearances.

After the start of the 1990s writers such as Bob Holman were also seen in performances in German literature houses, Nuyorican Poets Cafe and organize the Goethe -Institut New York on 14 - 18th November 1995 a German - Nuyorican Poetry Festival in New York. German participants included the rap poet Bas Bottcher, the Swiss Performance Poet Christian Uetz, the poet Durs Grünbein and Elke Erb and later Düsseldorf Slam organizer André Michael Bolten.

In 1994, edited by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman anthology Aloud! Nuyorican Poets Cafe Voices from the became one of the best-selling anthology of all time. The editors received for the American Book Award.

Film documentaries

In 1994, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe subject of a 14 - minute documentary Nuyorican Poets Café with the title was. The film received in 1995 at the New Latino Filmmaker's Festival in Los Angeles ( California ), the award for " Best Documentary ".

Two years later, in 1996, the director Paul Devlin turned over the Nuyorican Poets Poetry Slam team at the Cafe a feature-length documentary titled Slam Nation. The film showed the 1996 Nuyorican Slam Team with Saul Williams, Beau Sia, Jessica Care Moore, and Mums in their preparation and travel to the U.S. National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon. The documentary shows in his sequences of National Poetry Slams and performances of other major American poets such as Marc Smith, Taylor Mali and Patricia Smith.

Books and CDs

• Burning down the House - Selected Poems from the Nuyorican, Soft Skull Press 2003
• Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, ed. by Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman. Holt Paperbacks 1994, ISBN 0-8050-3275-4