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  2. Nuyorican Feminist Performance: From the Café to Hip Hop Theater

Nuyorican Feminist Performance: From the Café to Hip Hop Theater

Patricia Herrera 2020
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The Nuyorican Poets Café has for the past forty years provided a space for multicultural artistic expression and a platform for the articulation of Puerto Rican and black cultural politics. The Café's performances—poetry, music, hip hop, comedy, and drama—have been studied in detail, but until now, little attention has been paid to the voices of its women artists. Through archival research and interview, Nuyorican Feminist Performance examines the contributions of 1970s and '80s performeras and how they challenged the Café's gender politics. It also looks at recent artists who have built on that foundation with hip hop performances that speak to contemporary audiences. The book spotlights the work of foundational artists such as Sandra María Esteves, Martita Morales, Luz Rodríguez, and Amina Muñoz, before turning to contemporary artists La Bruja, Mariposa, Aya de León, and Nilaja Sun, who infuse their poetry and solo pieces with both Nuyorican and hip hop aesthetics.
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ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-07448-8 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-05448-0 (paper)
  • 978-0-472-12676-7 (ebook)
Subject
  • Literary Studies:Poetry and Poetry Criticism
  • Latinx Studies
  • Theater and Performance
  • American Studies
Citable Link

  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Stats

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Prologue
  • Chapter 1. Practicing a Feminist Nuyorican Aesthetic
  • Chapter 2. Gendering the Genealogies of the Nuyorican Aesthetic
  • Chapter 3. The Founding Mothers of the Nuyorican Poets Café
  • Chapter 4. Masculinity in Hip Hop, Spoken Word, and Slam Poetry
  • Chapter 5. “It Was Definitely a Family Affair”
  • Chapter 6. Performing Afro-Latinidad
  • Chapter 7. A Hip Hop Feminist Approach to Aya de León’s Thieves in the Temple
  • Chapter 8. Beyond the Tangible
  • Epilogue
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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Figure 7. Sandra María Esteves’s poem “Eulogy for Martín Pérez” and her angel line drawing, Yerba Buena (1980). The angelic figure wears a Puerto Rican bandana on its head

“Eulogy for Martín Pérez”

From Chapter 3

Figure 7. Sandra María Esteves commemorates the life of Martín “Tito” Pérez with her poem “Eulogy for Martín Pérez” and her angel line drawing, Yerba Buena (1980). Courtesy of the poet and artist.

Figure 9. When Sandra María Esteves files charges against Eduardo Figueroa and Joseph Papp, the director and producer of the Public Theater, she frames the court trial as a performance titled The Lawsuit (1979). The flier includes a pencil thin man dressed in a suit. There is a pair of eyes on top of his U-shaped head. He stands erect, and his hands are folded like a proper gentleman, while many eyes watch him. On the bottom of the flier, Esteves includes a section of acknowledgments.

The Lawsuit (1979)

From Chapter 3

Figure 9. Drawing by Sandra María Esteves, who had filed charges against Eduardo Figueroa and Joseph Papp, the director and producer of the Public Theater. The court trial is here ironically presented as a performance titled The Lawsuit (1979).

Figure 11. Flier of New Rican Village performance. Esteves includes cropped photographs of men and women in motion from playing the alto saxophone to drumming to wearing a vejigante costume. A series of images captures a female dancer moving from one point to another. The dancer jumps in the air, extends her arms and legs to execute a jeté, and then reaches sideways, extending her arms upwards, and falls to the ground.

Flier of New Rican Village Performance designed by Sandra María Esteves.

From Chapter 3

Figure 11. Poster of New Rican Village performance, Summer 1978. Designed by Sandra María Esteves. Courtesy of the artist.

Figure 17. Poem Oye me que mi espíritu habla with drawing by Sandra María Esteves. On the left page she depicts a god-like figure, with an enlarged head and ears. On top of the head, there are four ventricular chambers. The eyes are half-opened, as if in a meditative state. Contour lines cover the entire torso, creating a corporeal topographical map. On the right side of the page is the poem.

Oye me que mi espíritu habla

From Chapter 8

Figure 17. Poem Oye me que mi espíritu habla with drawing by Sandra María Esteves.

Figure 18. Mandala de Elegua (2005), 18” x 18” mixed media decoupage mandala vibrant red streams on canvas. Bright strands of color—most are a solid bright red, but some are multicolored patterns—emanate from the central point of the mandala on a black background.

Mandala de Elegua (2005) by Sandra María Esteves. Personal archive of Sandra María Esteves.

From Chapter 8

Figure 18. Mandala de Elegua (2005), 18”x 18” mixed media decoupage mandala on canvas. Courtesy of artist Sandra María Esteves.

Figure 19. Four different handmade beaded earrings by Sandra María Esteves. On the top left are black and red diamond-shaped earrings. On the top right are dangling earrings with black and white lines. The earrings on the bottom right are shaped like lightning bolts and made of black, red, and white beads. On the bottom right are blue and yellow dangling earrings.

Handmade beaded earrings by Sandra María Esteves by personal archive of Sandra María Esteves.

From Chapter 8

Figure 19. Handmade earrings by Sandra María Esteves. Clockwise from top left: “Elegba Portals,” “Elegba Spirals,” “Ochun Egypt,” and “Elegba Dragons.”

Figure 20. Flier of La Cura: A Ritual of Healing and Feeling.The flier is a black and white photomontage using a series of cut outs of the performeras’ silhouettes. There is an image of Esteves in the foreground in a declamatory posture while Marilyn Worrell holds her head as if she were in the middle of crisis. Andrea Brachfeld holds her flute with a joyful smile. Esteves expresses that the ritual performance of La Cura, The Healing.

La Cura: A Ritual of Healing and Feeling

From Chapter 8

Figure 20. Flier for La Cura: A Ritual of Healing and Feeling, Nuyorican Poets Café, 1976. Designed by Sandra María Esteves. Courtesy of artist.

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