Here’s
the voice of the new Nuyorican, the poetic tales
of Rican life at the millennium. Bonafide is rooted in those familiar
old mean streets of
El South Bronx y El Barrio; he tells and retells
the daily rituals of the hood then and now, drugs and dominoes, police
brutality and graffiti
immortality, Sandra María Esteves cultural ceremonies and Pedro
Pietri life-in-death obituaries. What makes him
Bonafide is that he celebrates all parts of his quirky self, his long
hippie hair and love for rock
and roll, his adoration of Che and Julia de Burgos
and Neruda and Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Gandhi and Jimi Hendrix. In Pelo
Bueno, we see the invisible
and hear the silenced and the mute. Here, for
a change, naps and kinks and ‘fros, braids and cornrows is not
pelo malo. That’s good
hair, rich, full, sculpted pelo bueno.-Juan Flores
Puerto Rican Scholar, Author of From Bomba to Plena
The blade-edged gospel of the city, in the deft and capable clutches
of Bonafide, jolts and transports the congregation. This is no typical
urban griot spewing worn rhythms. Bonafide sizzles with unflinching
focus, and crafts uncommon stanzas using a language that virtually
burns with his signature. There is no voice like this.
-Patricia Smith
Author of Close to Death & Big Towns, Big Talk
Famed Nuyorican poet Bonafide Rojas, a native of The Bronx, NYC, is a new generation Nuyorican poet/musician/photographer/teacher who is at the forefront of the current Latino literary renaissance. He was the 2002 SLAM THIS! Poetry champion and was also a member of the 2002 NYC | Union Square Slam team and the 2003 Chicago Wicker Park Slam team. He has worked with Teachers and Writers (NY), ASPIRA of NY (NY), ENLACE (NY), Muevete! (NY), Youth Speaks (CA), the Guild Complex (IL), Young Chicago Authors (IL), and the Louder Arts Collective (NY).
Pelo Bueno demonstrates that while many in the poetry and spoken
word canon would be content with poems that only
speak to their egos, Rojas chooses to personalize
issues of oppression and cultural preservation.
His dialectic focuses on several themes—the immigrant experience
in America, tales of wasted talent in an Andy
Warhol Era, and visions of war in faraway lands.
Through his use of language, the rhythms
of Hip-Hop and Rock & Roll speak with a Bronx Boogie attitude
that reflects his Nuyorican roots. A child of
the Puerto Rican Diaspora transplanted to the
streets of Nueva Yol, Mr. Rojas uses his words
as blades, cutting through the absurdity and
deceit that often plague our judgment.
Nuyorican poet Bonafide
Rojas follows in the tradition of Julia De Burgos,
Clemente Soto Velez, Pedro Pietri, Victor Hernandez
Cruz, Tato Laviera, and the many others who have
pushed a Puerto Rican literary canon. His work
can be found in Bum
Rush the Page: a Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press, 2002), Role
Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and
Political
Black Literature and Art (Third World Press,
2002), The “Centro
Journal,” an
academic publication of The Center for Puerto
Rican Studies (Hunter College, 2001) focusing
on the next generation of Nuyorican poets,
Blu Magazine’s “Puerto
Rican Issue - Roots and Culture”, and Freedom
to Speak, the first anthology by Poetry Slam,
Incorporated.
Pelo Bueno, through poems like
Creed of a Graffiti Writer, Invisible Ones,
and 25 Years
In, lets the reader see the maturity of a Latino
writer spitting in the wind, his Nommo creating
poems that resurrect ancestors and endorse
empowerment. The book features artwork by fronterizo
artist Francisco Enrique
Delgado, an introduction
by African Diaspora Scholar & Writer Louis
Reyes Rivera, and an introduction
by famed publisher and Nuyorican poet Shaggy
Flores.
Buy Pelo Bueno: Enter
Nuyorican Negritude Bookstore
