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Rivera
Strikes Again
Hector Luis Rivera
& Louis Reyes Rivera (poets)
Lucas Rivera (novelist) -- Raquel
Z. Rivera (critic)
Sunday, October 26, 2003 8pm to midnight
Bowery Poetry Club -- 308 Bowery (below Bleecker St.)
$7 donation
The Bowery Poetry Club is the site of a
literary invasion by four Puerto Rican writers, all of whom bear
the surname Rivera. Beginning at 8pm, on Sunday, October 26, 2003,
the program, RIVERA STRIKES AGAIN!, cuts across both poetry and
prose to present a landscape of literature and activism by writers
who have made their mark upon New York City's cultural scene.
Armed with books, CDs, and lasting reputations, the featured
writers include performance poet Hector Luis Rivera, poet/essayist
Louis Reyes Rivera, freelance journalist and novelist Lucas
Rivera, and critic/educator Raquel Z. Rivera, offering a full
evening of performance and open dialogue.
Hector Luis Rivera, co-founder of The
Welfare Poets, a collective of musicians and poets that
incorporates Hip Hop with Bomba, Plena and Latin Jazz, has been
writing and performing his work for the past 12 years. His poetry
was included in Nancy Nuevez's theatrical production of Blind
Alley, and in Taller Boricua's 30th Anniversary exhibition. Known
for his activism in community struggles around housing,
environmental justice, police brutality, political prisoners, and
most recently, in the battle for Vieques, Hector Luis continues to
perform original works while serving as an educator in several New
York City schools.
Louis Reyes Rivera, award-winning poet/essayist, has
been a mainstay in cultural activism for well over thirty years.
Among his more recent credits are Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry
Jam (Crown Publishers, 2001), co-edited with Tony Medina, and his
own Scattered Scripture, winner of the 1997 Latino Writers
Institute Award for Poetry. A professor of Creative Writing,
African-American, Nuyorican, Caribbean literature and history,
Louis has worked in Jazz clubs and festivals with The Sun Ra
All-Stars Project, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora, and with his own
band, The Jazzoets, which is regularly featured at Sistas' Place
in Brooklyn. He appeared on the Peabody award-winning HBO show,
Def Poetry Jam, and can be heard every Thursday, at 2pm, on WBAI
(99.5 FM) hosting Perspective.
Lucas Rivera is a freelance journalist-turned novelist, who
has worked with investigative reporter Jack Anderson, and whose
articles have appeared in Urban Latino, Vibe, Village Voice,
Brooklyn Bridge and New York Daily News, among others. His
articles on the Latin Kings involved more than six years of
research in between such other assignments as the World Trade
Center bombing, the war in Nicaragua, the Bhopal disaster in
India, and the earthquake in Mexico City. The Lucky Street
Chronicles is his first novel, in which Lucas captures the essence
of Spanish Harlem at a time when crack was first introduced into
Communities of Color.
Raquel Z. Rivera has made her impact as a major critic of
Hip Hop and contemporary literature. The author of New York Puerto
Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), Raquel is
currently a professor at the Department of Africana and Puerto
Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College. Her studies of Hip Hop and
Puerto Rican culture has resulted in articles covering the
evolution of Caribbean musical expression, such as Puerto Rican
bomba, música jíbara, plena, as well as Dominican palos and
salves, reflecting both the indigenous and African roots of that
music. In addition, her articles, stories and poetry, published in
numerous newspapers, journals and anthologies, have contributed
much to such topics as race and ethnic relations, gender issues,
Puerto Rican national identity, and cross-Caribbean cultures. A
founding member of Puerto Rican music group yerbabuena, she is
currently a member of the all-women’s music collective Yaya,
dedicated to exploring traditional Boricua and Dominican music.
Autographed books & CDs available.
The Bowery Poetry Club is located at 308 Bowery, near
Bleecker Street (# 6 to Bleecker or F train to Second Ave.).
RIVERA STRIKES AGAIN! begins at 8pm, with a $7 donation at the
door. Autographed copies of books and CDs will be available for
sale. For more information, contact Bowery Poetry Club at
212-614-0505, or Louisreyesrivera@aol.com .
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update 4 August
2008 |
