Miguel Algarin

Proem I
Angels are human interactions with the incorporeal world. Sometimes it seems as if the angel is an object outside the body that is transforming internal time and space into a metaphysical thunderstorm. However, more often it is the possession of the body by biological changes in pulse rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels that can make you levitate internally, while the state of mind possessing you whips your limbs and innards into a frenzy. Angels are sometimes people, objects or simply live-wire ideas. The connection with this world of direct electricity can be controlled in part by letting go of the self in order to let the typhoon through, tidying up internal space afterwards.

From 'Love Is Hard Work: Memorias De Loisaida'

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Survival

the struggle is really simple
i was born
i was taught how to behave
i was shown how to accommodate-
i resist being humanized
into feelings not my own-
the struggle is really simple
i will be born
i will not be taught how to behave
i will not make my muscles vestigial
i will not digest myself

From 'Mongo Affair'

Miguel Algarin is a true renaissance man, a literary mastermind whose passion for the art of poetry and the rawness of spoken word has transcended him into a living legend and a Latino icon. He is a leading figure of the Nuyorican movement of the 1970s, which created a literature of Puerto Rican identity and fostered its entrance into the larger world of American avant-garde poetic.

Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Algarin moved with his family to New York City in the early 1950's where his love for the written word intensified by the artistic energy radiating from the City streets. Obtaining advance degrees in literature from the University of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania State University, Algarin developed a successful career pursuing his passion for literature. He served as a Professor Emeritus for more than 30 years of service to Rutgers University where he taught Shakespeare, Creative Writing, and United States Ethnic Literature.

The life and work of Algarin spans the universities and the streets, so much so that combining the two resulted in the development of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a New York City cultural haven within the Lower East Side famed for being creatively drenched with great artistic intensity. Being the founder of such an organization, Algarin's mission was to create a multi-cultural venue that both nurtures artists and exhibits a variety of artistic works to both enlighten and empower the underclass, it is a mission that has remained true to this day.

Algarin is the author of more than ten published books of poetry, the editor of several anthologies, and an accomplished writer for television and theater. He has received three American Book Awards and was presented with the Larry Leon Hamlin Producer's Award at the 2001 National Black Theater Festival. Algarin is also the sole translator of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda's SONGS OF PROTEST. In his best-selling, critically acclaimed book LOVE IS HARD WORK, Algarin shares his own struggle with being HIV positive.

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Source: http://www.miguelalgarin.com/

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Miguel Algarin reading poetry at the Plexus event "1993 Marconi Columbus Open Call for Reconciliation and Well being". St. John Divine Cathedral, New York, 1993.