Perez Hosts Town Hall Nuyorican Poets Café Celebration

The Town Hall, Times Square's landmark concert venue, is pleased to present Nuyorican Poets Café Third Millennium Celebration: Aloud and Alive at 35! This special evening of spoken word and music hosted by Rosie Perez and Flaco Navaja features more than a dozen poets and musicians in a celebration from the iconic institution and many of its illustrious and luminary alumni. The event takes place on Saturday May 3rd at 8PM. Tickets for the show, priced at $40 & $35 are now on sale at The Town Hall Box Office and through Ticketmaster.
 
The evening will feature many of the leading voices in the poetry & spoken word movement, including:  La Bruja, Sandra María Esteves, Reg E Gaines, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Tato Laviera, Mariposa, Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, Nancy Mercado, Kirk Nugent, Willie Perdomo, Ishmael Reed, Ntozake Shange, Quincy Troupe, joined together for this very special evening, accompanied by the Boricua Roots music of Yerba Buena.

Started in 1973 in Loisaida (The East Village), Miguel Algarin and Richard August began hosting regular gatherings of young outcast poets of color in their apartment. Soon that space moved to an old bar on East 6th Street and The Nuyorican Poets Café was born. Allen Ginsburg called the Café "the most integrated place on the planet." Several generations of novelists, poets, playwrights, musicians and artists have grown up within the walls of their open room. Poetry, the vital sign of a new culture, needed to be heard live. So Algarin rented an Irish bar, the Sunshine Cafe on East 6th Street, which was christened The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. By 1980, the overflow of audiences led the Cafe to purchase an "in rem" building at 236 East 3rd Street to expand its activities and programs.  And the rest, as they say is Nuyorican Poets Café history.

"We're very pleased to have this great collection of artists together for this celebration," said Lawrence C. Zucker, The Town Hall Executive & Artistic Director. "This program showcases some of the very best in performance, poetry and music on the scene, marking their place in our history."
 
Built in 1921 by a group of suffragettes, The Town Hall began as a lecture hall and public forum for debates. Over the decades, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Billie Holiday, Igor Stravinsky, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis have graced the stage.  Today the hall flourishes as a popular, affordable venue, boasting the hottest acts in rock, pop, folk, cabaret, world music, comedy and dance, including Billy Joel, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Natalie Merchant, Graham Nash, Liza Minnelli, Cyndi Lauper, Norah Jones, Andre Watts, Henry Rollins, Joe Jackson, Pink Martini, Regina Spector, Brian Adams, Aimee Mann and Dawn Upshaw. For over a decade, The Town Hall has hosted live broadcasts of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. Over the past two-and-a-half decades, The Town Hall has produced a number of new and critically acclaimed musical series, which include The Century of Change, Not Just Jazz, Broadway By The Year® and The Broadway Cabaret Festival.

Tickets for The Nuyorican Poets Café Third Millennium Celebration are $40 & $35 and available now through TicketMaster, 212-307-4100, or www.ticketmaster.com, or The Town Hall Box Office between noon and 6 PM (except Sundays) at 123 West 43rd Street, 212-840-2824.  For more information, visit: www.the-townhall-nyc.org.

 

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