 Poet’s Passage Preserves
Contemporary
Puerto Rican Literature
By Robert Waddell, December 12, 2008
Any day in Old San Juan, poet Lady Lee Andrews zooms around town in a golden streak visiting a hardware store, planning poetry readings and running her oasis of literature, The Poet’s Passage.
The Poet’s Passage opened 2 years-ago as a resource hub for poets on the island, in New York City and around the world. Andrews devotes her self and the Poet’s Passage to poetry and poets, publishing, as a community center, hosting poetry readings and promoting poets. On entering the Poet’s Passage, one passes through a red door and is greeted by a squawking parrot named Pablo Neruda, and several love birds named Maya Angelou, Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost and Edna Saint Vincent Millay. On the wall displayed is the silhouette of a woman with poetry written over her body. In the main room, Andrews puts on a weekly poetry reading every Tuesday, which is so popular she doesn't have to advertise or print flyers because “people just show up through word-of-mouth,” she said.
“Every poet has the right to be treated like other people,” said Andrews, “Poets are put on the back burner. The Poet’s Passage allows poets to earn a living.”
Sitting in the Poet’s Passage, taking a break from cleaning and preparing the Poet’s Passage for a special reading by Illan Silan, Andrews eats chocolate covered cherries and hugs her 6-year-old daughter. An hour doesn't go by when a friend or acquaintance stops by to say hello or chit-chat.
 Andrews has taken on the cause of poetry: to promote, publish and help support struggling poets as much as possible. She uses her gift shop, which sells books, prints and ceramic houses to fund the poets who come through Andrews’s doors. She provides the space and resources for readings, allowing poets to learn or teach their craft. If it has to do with poetry, Andrews is involved.
Now she is publishing two first time poets, Alexandra Ostolaza, 16-years-old, and Lillin Martinez, who is 87-years-old, on Poet’s Passage Press. She said that she was excited because both poets, one at the beginning of life and one toward the end of hers, approach their work with the same vitality.
“I remember the first time I published my first book of poetry,” said Andrews, “I love my life. Whatever has to do with poetry, I'm in it.”
;Andrews is also publishing two of her own collections, “Heal,” about the power of healing and moving on after loss and “Light,” a book of erotic poetry.
To be sure, even in Puerto Rico, the land of Julia de Burgos, poets must be the most dedicated because no one ever gets rich from writing poetry. By no means affluent, Andrews feels that every dollar that comes into the Poet’s Passage store goes back into supporting poets and poetry. Not unlike Poet’s House or the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, Poet’s Passage is a hub of activity where poetry sails through; Andrews runs the safe port as well as the light house. Andrews, who grew up in San Juan, is so committed to the art form and the artists who write that she puts all of her energy, time, sweat, resources and blood into the Poet’s Passage that she jokingly refers to herself as “Joan of Arc running into battle.”
“I want to create a living museum dedicated to poetry with permanent and moving exhibits,” said Andrews. “I want the Poet’s Passage to go on, be the Hard Rock Café of poetry, not a tourist trap but a place, a resource center, with that feeling of poetry in everything we do.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
