Staff Pick
A founding member of the Nuyorican Poets Café (along with Miguel Piñero and Miguel Algarín), Pedro Pietri (1944-2004) was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, but raised in Manhattan. Selected Poetry collects poems throughout his career, including his most famous, the epic "Puerto Rican Obituary," as well as a single short story, "Lost in the Museum of Natural History." Pietri's poetry has the iconoclastic swerve, political profundity, and spirited wordplay found throughout the Nuyorican canon.
Though similar in both style and content to his fellow Nuyroican poets (see also the wonderful Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe), Pietri's writings would have worked quite well in a twin billing alongside proto-rapper Gil Scott-Heron (or perhaps even Richard Fariña). Covering themes of race, poverty, capitalism, culture, national identity, and life in New York City, Pietri's poetry spans a wide breadth of emotions, from anger and frustration to pride and reverence. Selected Poetry is a solid collection, one deserving of a far wider audience than it currently enjoys. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"There was no one in this country as ferocious, as brilliant, or as necessary as Pedro Pietri. In these days of growing inequality it is to his rebel vision I turn to for hope and for strength. A towering poet, absolutely peerless, explosively talented, a pioneer, and iconoclast, and activist, to whom the entire spoken word movement owes a debt beyond calculation."Junot Diaz
"One of the great American poets of the twentieth century, a leader of the Nuyorican poetry movement that ignited at Miguel Algarín's Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. Perhaps the most progressive and at the same time funniest poet of the period."Amiri Baraka
Pedro Pietri's often playfully absurd poems chronicle the joys and struggles of Nuyoricansurban Puerto Ricans whose lives straddle the islands of Puerto Rico and Manhattanand define the Latino experience in urban America. By turns angry, heartbreaking, and hopeful, his writings are imbued with a sense of pride and nationalism and were embraced by the generation of Latino poets that followed him. Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry gathers the most enduring and treasured work among his books, Puerto Rican Obituary, Traffic Violations, and Out of Order, along with a generous selection of his previously unpublished writings.
Pedro Pietri (19442004) was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in Manhattan. In the early '70s he co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Juan Flores is a professor and director of Latino Studies at New York University.
Pedro Lopez Adorno is a professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987.
Review
"In this charming and powerful posthumous volume, Pietri, a co-founder of New York Citys legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, shows off the sharp, surreal sense of humor he employs in writing on the social and political issues affecting New York Citys Puerto Rican community … abundant joy and imagination that may inspire the reader to pick up a pen: 'the magic of / writing poetry,' Pietri declares, 'is not knowing / how to do it / right or wrong!"—Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry is a compelling and humorous collection of poems by the poet laureate of the Nuyorican Poets.
Synopsis
Pedro Pietri's often playfully absurd poems chronicle the joys and struggles of Nuyoricans--urban Puerto Ricans whose lives straddle the islands of Puerto Rico and Manhattan--and define the Latino experience in urban America.
By turns angry, heartbreaking, and hopeful, his writings are imbued with a sense of pride and nationalism and were embraced by the generation of Latino poets that followed him. Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry gathers the most enduring and treasured work among his published books, Puerto Rican Obituary, Traffic Violations, and Out of Order, along with a generous selection of his previously unpublished works.
"There was no one in this country as ferocious, as brilliant, or as necessary as Pedro Pietri. In these days of growing inequality it is to his rebel vision I turn to for hope and for strength. A towering poet, absolutely peerless, explosively talented, a pioneer, and iconoclast, and activist, to whom the entire spoken word movement owes a debt beyond calculation."--Junot Diaz
"One of the great American poets of the twentieth century, a leader of the Nuyorican poetry movement that ignited at Miguel Algar n's Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. Perhaps the most progressive and at the same time funniest poet of the period."--Amiri Baraka
Pedro Pietri (1944-2004) was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in Manhattan. In the early '70s he was a featured poet at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.
Juan Flores (1943-2014) was a professor and director of Latino Studies at New York University, and author of many books on Puerto Rican and Latino culture.
Pedro L pez Adorno is a professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987, and a published poet.
About the Author
Pedro Pietri: Nuyorican poet and playwright Pedro Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1944, and raised in Manhattan. In the early 1970s, he co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with Miguel Pinera, Miguel Algarin, and others. He died of stomach cancer in 2004.
Juan Flores: Juan Flores is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and director of Latino Studies at New York University. He is the recipient of the Casa de las Americas Prize and the Smithsonian Institution Latino Legacy Award. His books include: From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity published by Columbia University Press.
Pedro Lopez Adorno: Pedro Lopez Adorno, born, Puerto Rico, 1954. Author of 13 books. He has been a professor in the Department of Africana and Puetro Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987.