The Nuyorican Poets Café kicked off a movement. Intentional or not, poetry fans across the world know the name of the little building known as the Nuyorican Poets Café. The Nuyorican is also synonymous with slam poetry. A genre of literature and competitive performance style. Thanks to its Friday night open slams that draws people from everywhere to its space. Most importantly they have been touched and inspired by what goes down in the famous brick edifice that sits on East 3rd in New York City’s Lower East Side. In honor of the Nuyoricans four and a half decades of existence here are some of the essentials.
It Was A Place For Outcasts
The original poet’s salon (think old school European drawing room meetings and 60s beatnicks) originated in co-founder Miguel Algaríns’ East Village apartment. What started as a meet up for Puerto Rican writers and artists became an opportunity for collaborators to share their work that couldn’t find a home in traditional artistic spaces. Co-founder Miguel Piñero, a playwright and actor and former con, shared his work here and his play “Short Eyes” made it to Broadway. The work catapulting Piñero to fame. His life was even made into the movie, Piñero.
It Had Three Locations
When the crowd became too large for his home Algarin moved the party. From his apartment to the Sunshine Café, an Irish bar on East 6th Street. He rented out the space where it officially became known as the Nuyorican Poets Café. In need of a bigger space the Nuyoricans’ current building on East 3rd Street was bought and renovated. It officially opened up shop in 1980 and has been a fixture of the neighborhood ever since.
It Gave Nuyoricans a Voice
The start of the Nuyorican literary movement began with the café’s founding. The genre’s pioneering poets including Pedro Pietri, Piri Thomas and Sandra Maria Estevez got their start performing at the Nuyorican. Affirming the idea that Puerto Ricans born and/or raised stateside have an identity that blends their languages and cultures. The Nuyorican offered this opportunity to a new generation of Puerto Rican writers, such as Willie Perdomo and Caridad “La Bruja” De La Luz, who were looking to articulate their experience and continues to do so today.
Its Writers Found Their Way On To The Page
Several books including two anthologies, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café and Action: The Nuyorican Poets Café Theater Festival memorialized the poets and playwrights that performed at the Café for the world to read.
It Evolved
With open doors and open minds, the Nuyorican is home to not just poetry from Puerto Ricans but plays, music and comedy from people of all stripes. In its 45 years it has become a cultural hub for all things creative from the multicultural communities that live and create in New York City.
Its Cultural Impact is Massive
The Nuyoricans’ imprint on culture as we know it began with the boom of the spoken word poetry scene in the early 1990s. “I think the Nuyorican Poets Café inviting artists to perform their art opened doors locally, nationally and internationally,” board member of the Café Carmen Pietri Diaz once said. Whether it is movies inspired by its poets (Saul Williams in Slam). Documentaries about the scene (Slam Nation) or television shows like HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and subsequent Broadway show of the same name. None of it is possible without the foundation the Nuyorican Poets Café and its artists set.
