Notes From A Native Daughter

Episode 77 - #Poetsforpuertorico was a hit. Willie Perdomo, thank you, thank you, thank you. The room was packed. A historic night for the spoken. Without a doubt. A vitamin room. A space for solidarity and Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico. Poet Cynthia Dewi Oka is off the charts. Her ode to Puerto Rico was like few I’ve ever met, for anyone or anything. The wound penned to slash the jugular. I feel like the different patches of a knitted quilt.

I spoke musician, activist, director, writer, musical theater advocate Local 802, Marlena Fitzpatrick, about her piece for the Huffington Post, More Than Prayers: How the Diaspora Can Help Our Families in Puerto Rico because she ‘admitted’ she wasn’t being objective about her assessment of how best to help the island. This is in short vignettes, the voice of her seeing eyes.

The little things do matter.

This is a different time. I know it’s not specific enough, but it’s specific enough for you to understand. The colossal breakdown of morals and decency in government agency looks to me like we’re trapped and on track towards a worldwide holocaust. I said it once before in this Letter to the President, we, the people, we have nowhere else to run…but millions are, we’re moving in circles because the earth is round. The past week has been intense. Puerto Rican families are being displaced, my own included, I welcomed three into my home - the elder, the frail, the women and children, the strong father, the young, an exodus.

Blue tarps are needed in Puerto Rico. The island needs over 40,000 blue tarps and they are not getting delivered. The reasons vary. I have gotten news of this need a couple of times a week since the hurricane. The video link is from Friday. The reasons vary, from there isn’t enough humanitarian inventory to FEMA taking too much time inputting inventory clearance. The news here and there trickles out. Still no blue tarps, more rain has fallen, and people continue to lose more of what they don’t have. The news of need of tarps has been traveling around since a bit after September 20. I say there needs to be an alliance of middle-big agencies that together should place an industrial order of blue tarps and work together to distribute. The shadow ‘strok’ distribution system still stands. What an image...

Which brings me to poetry. Poets, poems, and writers say it best. Artists in general capture quagmire like no else, which is why we need them. I have spoken with so many people in the past month I’m trying to piece together a cohesive picture, but what I get is a fractured cohesive piece of feeling. Willie and I had a great talk but the sound sucked. I kept about 10 minutes of our talk because Willie was so sincere and the sound was at its best.

#PoetsforPuertoRico will raise funds for Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico. A who’s-who of Poetry will gather on November 4th at Poetry House for a reading for Hurricane Relief.

I have more to share and will, I just have not had time. In the meantime. Here’s acclaimed Willie Perdomo.

This one is for Hostos Community College, the South Bronx, and Puerto Rico. Thank you to the Congressman.

For those of you who don’t know, Bobby Sanabria is a master percussionist and musician. Straight from his bio, “drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, producer, filmmaker, conductor, educator, activist, multi-cultural warrior and multiple Grammy nominee.” Boom. Or as Ricans would say on the street, “una jodienda.”

Bobby has a benefit concert on October 23rd at the old Village Gate, now (le) poisson rouge where Salsa met Jazz every Monday night for years. The talk with Bobby ended up being a four-part mini-series but I’m sharing the first two. He goes off and gives the full line up of the band and mixes it all with a history lesson on music, the New York music scene when he was growing up, and just a general sense of the times and music and his love for it.

Also on the talk is Elena Martínez, veteran and senior folklorist, researcher, writer and overall cultural guardian. Love her.

I don’t have much else to say other than take a listen. History. Diaspora. Latin Music. Puerto Ricans in Latin Music. Music heals. Salsa meets Jazz again on the 23rd. Big Band and all…

Bobby and Elena teamed up with the Jazz Foundation of America. Proceeds go to them for Puerto Rican musicians affected by the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and María.

For those of you who don’t know, Bobby Sanabria is a master percussionist and musician. Straight from his bio, “drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, recording artist, producer, filmmaker, conductor, educator, activist, multi-cultural warrior and multiple Grammy nominee.” Boom. Or as Ricans would say on the street, “una jodienda.”

Bobby has a benefit concert on October 23rd at the old Village Gate, now (le) poisson rouge where Salsa met Jazz every Monday night for years. The talk with Bobby ended up being a four-part mini-series but I’m sharing the first two. He goes off and gives the full line up of the band and mixes it all with a history lesson on music, the New York music scene when he was growing up, and just a general sense of the times and music and his love for it.

Also on the talk is Elena Martínez, veteran and senior folklorist, researcher, writer and overall cultural guardian. Love her.

I don’t have much else to say other than take a listen. History. Diaspora. Latin Music. Puerto Ricans in Latin Music. Music heals. Salsa meets Jazz again on the 23rd. Big Band and all…

Bobby and Elena teamed up with the Jazz Foundation of America. Proceeds go to them for Puerto Rican musicians affected by the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and María.

Episode 72 | Uptown Manhattan has Rhina Valentin. For the past 11-years she has given creatives here a platform to be heard and seen from her weekly Friday show on Bronxnet, OPEN. Maybe this is why she is called La Reina del Barrio. She is from El Barrio, but the “Queen” part we didn’t get to talk about that part. Nonetheless, in this episode La Reina del Barrio talks about motherhood, moving cross country, coming back, OPEN Bronxnet, her new variety show, Maria, and going at it with bravado and dignity. Thank you Rhina Valentin for a lovely conversation.

Sol

#LaReinaDelBarrio #RhinaValentin #BronxNet #OPEN #ElBarro #TheBronx #Art

María Relief Effort Initiative: Yaraní del Valle is fierce. I’ve seen her sing her heart out. Etched in my mind. A unique interpreter she is. Bella. It is no coincidence that Yaraní, alongside Lady Onion, Aris Mejias, Lady Lanchonete, Isabel Gandía, and artist-activist Jeca Rodriguez created the EcoKit duffle initiative, Puerto Rico Eco Kit.

The backstory of how the three of us are connected is a nice mini story. But, the skinny is the lesson. And that is, the diaspora network is threaded and spreads out pretty far. People working together from all over and partnering with coalitions on the island, creating efforts, sending gestures, and operating in what Yara calls a “stork” system effort. All the while an emerging and unofficial, “new order” ripples.

Yara is a source and a force. Listen to her. She has a lot to say, not only about EcoKit but about who-where-how, the network she operates in is working.

EcoKit Puerto Rico

Borrowed from Dad = Borinquen Vive

Pete Miranda is one of the sweetest, coolest, funniest cats around. I've known him years from working in the Latin music circuit. For those of you who don't know who he is, Pete is a legend. Really. New York City and diaspora history in full glory. Here is a Boricua from Manatí who ended up playing with the Machito and Tito Puente orchestras. Pete is a natural storyteller and his candidness is beautiful. All total he spoke pretty much without interruption for over two hours. I edited a five-part mini-series of Pete, and here are the first two. They say music heals...so, here it is, no music, just talk, but good enough to bring a smile to your face.

Pete Miranda is one of the sweetest, coolest, funniest cats around. I've known him years from working in the Latin music circuit. For those of you who don't know who he is, Pete is a legend. Really. New York City and diaspora history in full glory. Here is a Boricua from Manatí who ended up playing with the Machito and Tito Puente orchestras. Pete is a natural storyteller and his candidness is beautiful. All total he spoke pretty much without interruption for over two hours. I edited a five-part mini-series of Pete, and here are the first two. They say music heals...so, here it is, no music, just talk, but good enough to bring a smile to your face.

Rosalba Rolón is an actress, dramaturge, writer, producer, lyricist, grant writer, mentor, leader, and the world is a better place because she is in it. God is my witness.

Like so many, soon after María passed the questions became, what can we do to help? And thousands have activated to do just that, help. There are numerous and beautiful initiatives and coalitions taking root all over the land, far beyond the island and the island itself. In the midst of so much chaos and shady dealings, the domino effect of consequences continues. But the efforts don’t stop. Pregones/PRTT’s Hurricane María Relief Drive for Artists is one of those beautiful gestures.

For the month of October, the theater will campaign to provide $500 micro-grants to theater, music, dance, visual and literary arts practitioners in Puerto Rico. The drive will put emergency cash in the hands of artists with whom Pregones/PRTT has had a history of exchange and collaboration, and who are also invited to identify subsequent micro-grant recipients.

Two shows happening at Pregones/PRTT on Walton this month, Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat, the concert (Oct. 7) and El Apagón (Oct. 20) 100% of ticket sales will go towards the Hurricane María Relief Drive for Artists. At Pregones/PRTT on Broadway District, Spamilton.

Listen to her talk. She explains it all. The heart of it, the need of it, the solidarity with artists.

#ArtistsPR #Relief #P2P