A TRIBUTE TO PEDRO PIETRI (1944-2004)
Pedro Pietri was (is) one of the most prominent representatives of the Nuyorican poetry movement, arguably the most significant contribution made by Puerto Rican Diaspora to US literature. All dressed in black, subversively playful and irreverent to all established traditions (except probably to the centuries-long tradition of Spanish-language oral poetry), the self-proclaimed Reverend of the Church of Our Mother of Tomatoes was a fixture of the Lower East Side's literary scene since the late 1960s until his death.
The tribute organized yesterday night at Lower East Side's Nuyoricans Poets Café (of which Pietri was a founding member, alongisde his pals Miguel Piñero and Miguel Algarín) by Institut Ramon Llul of Catalonia fully lived up to Pietri's spirit. Opening the night, the only remaining founding member of the Café and legendary Nuyorican poet Miguel Algarín read-performed a poem dedicated to this friend. Taking on the stage immediately afterwards, Barcelona-born poet David Castillo, the alma-pater of this homage, improvised an on-the-spot translation into Catalan of Pietri's most famous poem, Puerto Rican Obituary (1973). Even for those of us who don't understand Catalan (a Romance language with links to French and Spanish), the stacatto succession of syllyables and bright open vowels was disarmingly enchanting, a meaningful rendition into pure sound of Pietri's words.
Both readings were out of program. Improvisation, surprise, linguistic cross-switching: the very essence of Nuyorican poetry.
TO BE CONTINUED
