Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe [Paperback]

Miguel Algarin (Editor), Bob Holman (Editor), Nicole Blackman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1994

Compiled by poets who have been at the center of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, Aloud! showcases the work of the most innovative and accomplished word artists from around America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New York City's Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a Lower East Side institution, is known for hosting poetry slams, or public recitals of poems competitively graded by the audience. This is participatory performance poetry with an urban groundswell behind it-oral, multicultural, political, uninhibited. But how does the poetry come across once it's been conventionally-and "silently"-published? "Hear this book with your eyes!" exhorts coeditor Holman; in his rambling introduction, Algarin urges poetry as "a living art," as if to fight off print's inertia. All readers won't be floored by the result, which includes lines and stanzas (by Mike Tyler, Edwin Torres, Willie Perdomo, Raul Salinas, others) that beg to be sung or shouted, and do not rest easy on the page. But the vitality of the collection is conspicuous even when its anarchy causes some impatience. A maximalist poetry-compounded of emotional drive, visceral detail, real-life words and rhythms-offers something vigorous even when it reads as virtually unedited. The voices collected (more than 100) are challenging.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Manhattan's Nuyorican Poets Cafe, located in the low-rent district of Alphabet City, has become well-known over the past two decades for its poetry performances and "slams." Founded by Algarin and the late Miguel Pinero, it is the home for New York Puerto Rican poets and other poets of various nationalities and ethnic groups. This remarkably full collection, winner of the 1994 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, includes 260 poems by 145 poets of highly varied voices, a breadth that gives the anthology an urban energy that has transferred well from stage to page. Most of the works are interesting to read, some are heartrending, and others just plain fun. Nicole Breedlove's poem about growing up on welfare ("And my brother/joined the army/to get away/from the government"), Dael Orlandersmith's "Poem for Anne Sexton" ("Her perfume is the bathwater/of faded party girls"), and Sapphire's troubled "In My Father's House" ("my mother slipped on her sweater & disappeared") are a few of the many standouts. Holman's "Invocation" (a sort of foreword), Algarin's introduction, and the sometimes witty, sometimes precious authors' biographies are not to be missed. Highly recommended.
Harold Augenbraum, Mercantile Lib., New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (August 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805032576
• ISBN-13: 978-0805032574
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Today's poetry has a distinct voices that rings "Aloud", September 4, 1998

By 

A. Darnell "Ohio Daughter" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Paperback)

When I bought my first copy of "Aloud," it was 1994. Four years later I have given numerous copies away of this anthology that brings American poetry audiences home. This home is one filled with anger, laughter, skepticism, worry, joy, love, dreaming and observation built with the tools of post-modern exploration. "Aloud" is where poets and readers begin to understand the 1990's.

As a lover of poetry, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe takes readers on a ride to life as it is, not as it was in the traditional poetry we grew up reading in school. This is a significant reason why I use this anthology to teach my college students that poetry DOES speak to you, IS about you and IS written by people like you. Poetry has a glorious tradition and the 'now' poetry of "Aloud" demands a place in that tradition.

If you truly love poetry, you will truly become a lover of this text. My only disappointment is that there isn't another anthology from this haven of rhythm and soul. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, honest, beautiful, beatific, February 12, 2003

By 

"fiftylashes" (Ellwood City, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Paperback)

i was shocked by the enormous beauty contained in the words - the simple english, spanish, or hybrid mixture words - how much emotion, how much skin and sweat can be placed within them. i am a poetry fan, but what i like is particular and peculiar. the poetry in this book speaks to and about human beings in the honest, skin-blood-bones-organs-nerves way that i feel has not been captured since the Beats. while i love sylvia plath, this poetry contains none of the almost ascetic, sterile, abstraction of most poetry, poetry like how you think "british" when you think poetry. this is tactile poetry, and though one may not personally relate to the writer, one would hope (I would hope) that the reader can relate to the words as they are placed, the emotion invoked and evoked by the words-plus-tone, by the very act of those very particular words placed together to create this poetry. this is where appreciation lies. this is where poetry is. this is turning feeling and thought and experience into sounds and words - into poetry.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible!, May 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Paperback)

This darn book had me laughing and second guessing myself. The poems are filled with things that you usually only share with your close friends. It pounces upon the thing we all find ourselves saying to someone else at some point in our life: "You think that too? I thought I was the only one!". I love this collection. I first found it when I was 18, and have since found myself quoting it, or at least recalling some of the poems fondly.