Capicu Poetry: Latino Heritage Month

Published On: Fri, Sep 21st, 2007

Community | By Urban Jibaro

Capicu Poetry: Latino Heritage Month

Esperate, is there a strange new language of sofrito-flavored
Brooklynese brewing at Capicu Poetry? It certainly seems so! If you know the significance of Papo Swiggitys new urban latino terms of
endearment "Coki" and "Choops", or the now infamous "Cacaracu" cry of veteran Brooklyn poet Joe P.Y., then you find yourself at the door of a new cultural revolution taking place in the County of Kings!

We had about 80 guests for this special Latino Heritage show. However, love and art is universal and the room was still as diverse as ever. Urban Jibaro and Lisa "Goddess" Centeno did an amazing job juggling the needs of the door and bar in the front, while The Guy set himself up in the audio room.

One would find a piece of Spanish Harlem off in the featured artist table as Olga Ayala and her beautiful, unique jewelry and figures attracted alot of attention throughout the evening. One of Olga’s standout pieces is a brightly colored clay Vejigante dancer, looking at this piece gives you an immediate vision of a carnival in the tropics.

PaPo went around greeting the guests and taking names for the open mic list.. and boy did we have some surprises in store! We opened up our night in Capicu tradition, with a surprise introduction to the poetry of an amazing Bronx Latina artist and activist, MelleSol! One of her powerful pieces, entitled "My Twelfth Second", focused on the experience of domestic violence and drew the admiration and attention of the many women in attendance.

We were also honored to see the poetic powerhouse known as Max Parthas (of PrysmaticDreams) perform one of his signature pieces,
"What Happened To Hip Hop", which was received very well by our young crowd. Shout out to Tribal Raine as well, as they both travelled up from South Carolina and we were honored that they chose our event as part of their NYC tour.

Among the open mic’ers, we were honored to have author Joe P.Y. (Of
Poetry Alive), Luis Bernard (spoken word artist, NYC community
organizer from the In Progress Group), Boricuation hip hop artist G Positive, Taino Brigs, Canela, Bushwicks Own Conan (who offered some beautiful tribute pieces).

PaPo surprised everyone by having our resident soundman "The Guy" play a salsa set, and pitted Canela and MelleSol to dance to Marc Anthony’s"Nadie Como Ella". Soon, the floor was packed with salseros and salseras, and we spun directly into the open mic with Canelas piece"You said!"

In our feature artist’s OL SoUL ( who is, ironically, in his early
20’s), one will find a dynamic charm in the way he commands his words
and the crowd. His set included one of his signature pieces about Hip hop, entitled"Radio", and also a duet erotica piece with Bella Trastorna. SoUL had a very exciting surprise in store when he decided to end his set with friends from the progressive artists Readnext Poetry Squad- Decora, Latin Translator and FreeFlowin.

OL SoUL also announced the upcoming Capicu / Lose Control Collaboration JIBARO SOY featuring his poetry as well as some of Urban Jibaro’s wordplay to take place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on September 27th. (More details can be found on www.CapicuPoetry.com)

After Urban Jibaro came on stage and thanked the crowd for coming out, Notice Lounge opened it’s door to an eager young crowd for pool and dancing and many of us got to mix and mingle, Brooklyn style!
Many thanks to those of you that continue to support true art!