He’s the author of Sancocho - A Book of Nuyorican Poetry, can be found in The Anthologies Role Call and Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, both edited by Tony Medina [the latter co-edited with Louis Reyes Rivera]. He is one of the founders of the annual Voices for the Voiceless Poetry Concert which occurs in the five college Umass-Amherst area.
Considered by many to be an organizer and leader for the New Generation “Nuyorican” Latino poetry movement. He was a member of the 2000 National Hartford Slam team and competed in the 2001 Nationals as an independent competitor representing Springfield, MA. Shaggy also performed at the National Poetry Slam 2001 Latino showcase and in the NPS African American Showcase in Seattle, Washington. Mr. Flores was also the one of the first poets to feature at the prestigious Austin International Poetry Festival.
Shaggy is also the founder of Dark Souls Press and Aristotle’s
Playground, a web and print design firm. He loves Captain Crunch cereal,
old reruns of Thundercats, Tranzor Z, The A-Team, Transformers and
Three’s Company.
Sancochando Ame-Rican Histories:
Shaggy’s Vernacular
Poetics
After this aesthetic fiesta, the joys of reading Shaggy’s
poetry, of consuming the Sancocho with la cuchara grande, a bit of critical dessert.
Sancocho is a
beautifully crafted product of the aesthetics of barrio life, a poetics that
came to fruition with the 1960s-70s Nuyorican Movement. As one of the first as
well as one of the finest expressions of the global dissemination of Nuyorican
cultural creation this book shows the conversion of Nuyorican into Ame-Rican
poetry. Shaggy’s
poetics is explicitly in that tradition as it revealed in the subtitle
of the collection “A Book of Nuyorican Poetry.” He places
himself in relationship to the now classic
auteurs of our Ame-Rican poetic tribe including
among others Pedro Pietri, Louis Reyes-Rivera,
and Sandra Maria Esteves.
In
the best expression of this lineage Jaime Flores
(Shaggy) poetry is boldly political, representing a cultural
practice committed with the decolonization and
liberation of the Puerto Rican people. In this politically
engaged poetry the nation can appear as a lived experience
of racism, labor exploitation, social marginality, and
internalized violence, but is also a project of emancipation
that is enacted in a vast array of struggles by a variety
of social movements fighting for survival, dignity, rights,
and respect. The profound political vocation of Shaggy’s
poetry gives it a quality as a tool for education
and consciousness raising in our community.
Sancocho is also a celebration of culture,
desire, and the playfulness of Puerto Rican life. The poems have a
narrative and dramatic edge that combine chronicles of different aspects
of daily life in the barrios with scenes of love and rich expressions
of erotic desire. The vivid images contrast the landscapes of hopelessness
and despair that characterize colonial violence in the everyday experience
of the inner city in Holyoke, with the tropical passion, dance, solidarity,
and love people and life that constitute resources of hope and keep
us alive in our communities.
Thus, Sancocho is literally an Ame-Rican gumbo, a collage of many of our hopes and desires but also of the hardships and disappointments that we confront here in this territory of the translocal nation that is settled in the valley of Western Massachusetts and beyond.
As Shaggy is already recognized because of his cultural activism,
given his leadership as an organizer of a new Nuyorican movement in
this part of Ame-Rica, Sancocho as his first book also represents a
significant step forward in Puerto Rican aesthetic expressions in (and
from) this corner of the transboricua nation.
Agustín Laó-Montes
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
October 24, 2000
Sancocho Book Review
A few months ago, Jaime "Shaggy" Flores, a local poet and
activist, led a week-long Nuyorican poetry workshop for teens
at our Brightwood Branch Library. Getting teens excited about writing
and performing their own poetry can be a challenge, but Flores electrified
his students. At the end of the week, the teen poets proudly performed
for an audience at the Spanish American Union's Proyecto Vida. After
the performance, the audience asked the teens questions about the workshop.
Several said that the difference in Flores' approach was that he taught them
about poetry in connection with their Puerto Rican heritage, ancestors, and history.
He encouraged them to write from their own unique cultural perspective and to
be proud of their roots. This encouragement helped many of the teens find their
voices as poets.
This same blend of poetry and Puerto Rican pride can be found in Flores' first
book, Sancocho. His love for his family and culture is the light in
his poetry, while anger at oppression is the fire in his words. His writing,
however justifiably angry, is never heavy-handed. He uses humor to get his message
across.
In Corporate America Comes to El Barrio Flores writes: "Suburban
big wigs/ Drove distances/ To experience the gutter/ Taste the magic/ The feel
of Mac arroz congandules/ Mac pernil/ Mac alcapurria/ Mac relleno de papa/ Mac
empanadilla/ And everyone's favorite/ Mac platanos/ Mac plantains."
Springfield's
own Nuyorican poet, Shaggy Flores, stirs things up in Sancocho. He
is not afraid to poke fun or to confront hot issues. His poems are a strong but
tender demand for change.
Rachel Jones
Springfield Library and Museums
Contact Shaggy Flores: info@shaggyflores.com
