Acentos Poetry: Celebrating Poetry All Year Round
By Robert Waddell, April 20, 2009
 April is National Poetry Month and there are venues, institutions, people we take for granted because they are a constant positive force for art, integrity and change in our community. Like an old friend or the store owner who has always been there. No one ever expects him to leave because he’s a lighthouse, a secure comfort that is always there, recognizable, soothing.
For the last three years, an amazing team of poets and writers have held high the torch of poetry with monthly readings, a writer’s workshop for new poets to meet more established poets and to create an electrical conductivity between generations of artists.
Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase, with Sam “Fish” Vargas and Rich Villar, has created and carved out a home, a haven for new poets and older poets. Acentos has the passion of the Nuyorican Poets Café and the historical élan of A Gathering of the Tribes with a dab of hip hop. Vargas and Villar appreciate the potent power of the spoken word, on the page and on the stage. They are promoters, teachers and promulgate the art of speaking and writing poetry.
To be sure, Acentos Poetry is the keeper of the flame in the Bronx. There are other torch bearers out there but none so diligent, so trustworthy and so dynamic. If Acentos were a religion, I’d probably convert.
First in performance at a small Mott Haven restaurant, Acentos soon moved to the Bruckner Bar and Grill where it continues to showcase established poets and new spoken word artists. Then, The Acentos Writer’s Workshop was born, which is held on Sundays at Hostos Community College, and a program of louderARTS Project, guest workshop teachers and lecturers mentor newer poets in how to hone the craft of writing and performing.
 “Acentos is committed to establishing their house as a place for teaching poets and writers to challenge ourselves, to push our talents to the very limits and then some,” said Papo Swiggity, co-founder of Capicu Cultural Showcase. “To that end, they've been essential to the quality growth of our performance and literary arts community.”
For the last three years, Acentos has stood at the vanguard of the burgeoning artistic scene in the South Bronx, providing a renewed spotlight for Latino poetry in a venue that fosters an encouraging atmosphere for writers of diverse backgrounds and experience,” their informational materials read, “Acentos showcases nationally recognized poets alongside emerging voices in a setting that stimulates open dialogue and an increased sense of community.”
Former and future workshop teachers include Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Martin Espada, Frank Perez, Sheyla Candelario, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Mildred Ruiz and Edwin Torres, to name just a few.
“I've learned how to write without thinking too much about the topic of the poem, just to let the pen move and continue with your subconscious,” said emerging poet Yenny Love, who has traveled from New Jersey to attend Acentos’s Sunday writing workshops, “I got to meet very talented writers who enhance my writing ability. Just to be exposed to people that actually do this as part of their lives and just to share with them and be introduced to some of their favorite poems and techniques, it’s amazing to me.
“One thing that will always stay with me is what Fish Vargas told me one day. He said ‘just write Yenny, just write’. It was like a light bulb went on in my head. After that I haven't stopped writing.”
For Acentos, every month is national poetry month, putting the accent on cultivating and preserving the underappreciated art of spoken word. This reporter remembers an evening at the Bruckner Bar and Grill with an open-mic and the featured performers were Nuyorican Poets Americo Casiano, his group Nuyorican School and Sandra Maria Esteves. No where else could one find established seasoned veterans with new up and coming hopefuls.
 While many newer poets think that this is way to become famous as with hip hop or Def Poetry Jam, Acentos looks to cultivate the future and at the same time they are purists who know that spoken word is only as good as the poet who puts ink to paper. Pedro Pietri and Piri Thomas go hand in hand with T.S. Elliot and William Butler Yeats. Esteves’s “Maria Christina” poem can stand proudly next to any work of Emily Dickenson. Acentos firmly stands by the idea that Nuyorican Poetry will never again be marginalized.
Veteran Nuyorican poet Jesus “Papoleto” Melendez said bluntly, “Any poetry reading going on is good.” Melendez is concerned with literary values going out of poetry where more and more it’s about being famous, on the way to becoming a hip hop performer by way of Blackberries and the internet. He called it “trying to play leap frog with an invertebrate.”
Veteran poet Martin Espada wrote, “Acentos is one of the best audiences, one of the best venues, I've ever seen. The organizers do a great job, not only in terms of spreading the word, but also in terms of creating anticipation. I feel like I'm part of a community, part of a movement. Aquí estamos y no nos vamos."
With Acentos one feels this new generation, this new movement of Nuyorican poet emerge with a sense of history and hip hop, combining poetic promulgation with a persistent pedagogy at Hostos Community College, something Melendez agrees is a good thing. Oh yes, April is National Poetry Month and Acentos Poetry events and writing workshops represent a real good thing lasting all year long.
For more information, contact Acentos at, www.louderarts.com.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
