Nuyorican Poets Cafe

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization in Alphabet City in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.

Founded c. 1973, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe began operating in the East Village apartment of writer, poet, and Rutgers University professor Miguel Algarín with assistance from co-founders Miguel Piñero, Bimbo Rivas, and Lucky Cienfuegos.

By 1975, the number of poets involved with the venture outgrew that space, so Algarín rented an Irish pub, the Sunshine Café on East 6th Street, and they christened it "The Nuyorican Poets Cafe". Some of the featured poets at this time included founders Miguel Algarín, Miguel Piñero and Lucky Cienfuegos. Jorge Brandon aka El Coco que Habla, Sandra María Esteves, Pedro Pietri, Bimbo Rivas, Victor Hernández Cruz, Tato Laviera, Piri Thomas, Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, and José Angel Figueroa were some of the poets featured during the mid to late 1970s. By 1980, the overflow of audiences led them to purchase their current building at 236 East 3rd Street so as to expand their activities and programs. During this time the second wave of Nuyorican Poets, featured at the cafe, emerged including Nancy Mercado and Martín Espada.

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