ALL ARTISTSAmerica > Costa Rica, Cuba, United States > Piri Thomas
// Piri Thomas
© D.R.
Every Child Is Born A Poet
"Words can be like bullets or like butterflies. Truth elevates you, lies destroy you. So say what you think and think about what you say," spoken with the force of a whiplash over a rumba beat, this statement is a call to arms for the damned of the earth. Inspired by Fanon, Piri Thomas is a theoretician about the condition of the colonised, in this case the life of Latinos, and especially the black Latin experience, in the US. Born in 1928 in Harlem to a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father, Thomas published Down These Mean Streets in 1967, a novel which was an inspiration for a whole generation of artists, intellectuals and community workers. In the land of West Side Story, in a context marked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, this politically incorrect tale follows a ghetto adolescence punctuated by punches and kicks which ends in jail. The book was a major inspiration to the nascent movement of Nuyorican poets, precursors of spoken word, beat poetry, slam and rap. Since the 1970s, from the platform of the Nuyorican Poets Café of the East Village, Thomas narrates the beauty and the drama of Hispanic America, to the rhythm of a conga drum. “New York has 8 million stories to tell”, as the Rubén Blades song says. Weaving the poems of Piri Thomas through music by Kip Hanrahan, this soundtrack is from a documentary about the poet, ten years in the making, which captures some unmissable moments of the era.
Yannis Ruel
(2 votes)
// ALSO
- Competition! HKB FiNN plays at Rich Mix on 30 May. Win a copy of his new album.
- Art Melody's futuristic African hip hop
- Made In Amerikkka
- Ray Barretto
- Ruben Blades
- From Mambo to Hip-Hop: A Bronx Tale
- From Mambo to Hip Hop, A South Bronx Tale
- Oliver Mtukudzi, Oliver Mtukudzi - African Soul Rebel
- Andrés 'El Jíbaro' Jiménez, Andrés 'El Jíbaro' Jiménez - Puerto Rico's folk music icon
// ALL PIRI THOMAS'S REVIEWS
Every Child Is Born A Poet
23/01/2007
// DISCOGRAPHY
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Every Child is born a Poet (Album)// LINKS
RELATED ARTISTS
>> DJ Mujava
>> Hugh Masekela
>> Marc Ribot
>> Drummers of Burundi
>> Sally Nyolo
REPORTS
// CONTACT
Cheverote Productions (Distributeur)
Tel : (510) 620-0660
1678 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 278 Berkeley USA CA 94709
Piri Thomas's Website
// POST A COMMENT
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Mystery Man
14/09/2011
Sir, I love your work. They are quite facet of art that shines to all, who see it. God bless you.
Stylo
07/02/2012
Great album, the actual quote is: "words can be bullets or butterflies. The truth uplifts, while lies destroy. So say what you mean and mean what you say."
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