Overview

Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire is José Angel Figueroa's newest poetry and prose collection. A major contributor to the Puerto Rican and Latinx literary movement in the United States., Figueroa is best known for his powerful social commentary, poetic storytelling, and visual imagery. His writings ar lyrical, rhythmic, and musical, sometimes autobiographical, and frequently politically charged; they do not fit neatly into one category. In this volume, Figueroa explores universal themes of the human experience as well as contemporary issues of immigration, racial injustice, and colonialism. His narratives voice the realities of everyday people as well as the commitments and passions of activists who advance justice. Poems, personal essays, monologues, and elegies deliver an intriguing range of storytelling approaches. Figueroa invites the reader to question the origins of self, the roots of love, and the unpredictability vibrating from everyday life. His accounts of migration journeys and struggles against racism offer an insider perspective. Figueroa's narratives of immigration, poverty, and violence against women uplift the voices of everyday people while others relate the passion and fire of activists who toppled Puerto Rico's governor in 2019, Erica Garner who fought against police violence, and Oscar Lopez Rivera, the former Puerto Rican political prisoner. ""...This collection of voices created by José Angel Figueroa is what remains when you ""can't kill relentless faith born from the spirituals of stardust and many rivers."" -- Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Award-winning poet ""...Here is poetry fully empowered by jazz-like rhythms that remind us of Coltrane in A Love Supreme..."" -- Pedro Lopez Adorno, Poet and novelist, ""... Figueroa's Craft and Style / Speaks sounds / Of Heat and Soul..."" -- Amina Baraka, Poet, actress, author, and community organizer ""...Always filled with lucidity, love, refuge, respect, fulfillment and self-determination, Figueroa's poetry is his liberation... his rite of passage... the necessary revolution for us all."" --Juan Sanchez, Visual artist and Professor of Art at Hunter College Master artist Rudy Gutierrez created the book cover and interior artwork. His work has been described as ""wall medicine,"" ancient yet contemporary, urban in a sense, and musical in feel. His work includes paintings, murals, artwork for album covers, films, US postal stamps, art books, and children's stories, that have received prestigious awards. Activist, educator, and independent scholar, Iris Morales edited the collection. She has edited several anthologies including Voices From Puerto Rico: Post Hurricane Maria, Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA, and is the author of Through the Eyes of Rebel Women, the Young Lords: 1969 to 1976.

Full Product Details

9781734027105

Table of Contents

Reviews

From monologues and elegies to first-person poetic prose pieces, Jose Angel Figueroa's Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire asks readers to question the origins of the self, the effects of intense hate, deeply-rooted love and the personas that come before and beyond the chokehold of cries. Not only does Figueroa pull at the rhythms that vibrate from real people set as characters such as King Diamond and Almida, but he also relishes in the fight and fire created by activists such as Erica Garner and Oscar Lopez Rivera. He pays homage to the agonizing genius and literary immortality of Julia de Burgos as only a founding member of the Nuyorican Poetry movement can. This collection of voices created by Jose Angel Figueroa is what remains when you can't kill relentless faith born from the spirituals of stardust and many rivers. --PEGGY ROBLES-ALVARADO, award-winning poet and editor of Mujeres, The Magic, The Movement, and The Muse and other collections Jose Angel time travels through poppy fields divined in the pauses between his shape shifting and spinning of recuerdos. He is a piraguero dousing the coldness of the world with the warmth of his empathic imagination. --MAGDALENA GOMEZ, award-winning Poet, Playwright, Educator, and Poet Laureate of Springfield, MA (2019-2021) Master wordsmith Jose Angel Figueroa's new book, Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire, makes us think beyond the words on the page. A poet who mysteriously connects words into dancing partners, expressing with grace, outrage, and affection, life's eternal emotions. His poetic songs are history telling, screaming with anger over human injustices. He teaches us to discover and listen to our own inner rhythms, and he does this while entertaining the heart and mind. --GEORGE MALAVE, Photographer and visual artist Jose Angel Figueroa's new poetry collection, Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire, incorporates the voices of many oceans and crossroads. Here is poetry fully empowered by jazz-like rhythms that remind us of Coltrane in A Love Supreme. And it is LOVE the thematic thrust that sparks the heartbeats of poetic fire in poems like, Black Pearl, TRANSNIGHTIFICATION, Alma y Vida, Poet Pedro Pietri, The Immigrant's Tale, and Oscar is Everywhere but Home, to name just a few. Each poem in the collection is a lesson of liberation that refuses to be subdued. --PEDRO LOPEZ ADORNO, Poet, novelist, literary critic, and anthologist

Author Information

Rudy Gutierrez is an award-winning artist and illustrator. Gutierrez's work has been described as ""Wall Medicine,"" ancient yet contemporary, urban in a sense, and musical in feel. He is known for creating images that combine elements of indigenous art with those of urban culture. His artwork for periodicals, books, magazines, records, CDs, films, and paintings have been exhibited and distributed worldwide. Gutierrez feels that an artist's highest honor and fulfillment is to inspire and uplift. To this end, he has offered his art for numerous causes and continues to do so. He has performed as a guest artist doing live painting, backdrops, stage props, workshops, and benefit concerts for organizations working with youth and bringing artistic opportunities to them. Gutierrez contributed art to the First Annual Anti-Apartheid show at the United Nations, participated in a touring show in Germany exploring social issues, and donated art to the International Cultures Foundation. Gutierrez has lectured and conducted workshops nationally and abroad and is a tenured professor at Pratt Institute where he has taught since 1990. He was born in the Bronx, New York to Puerto Rican parents and raised in New Jersey. Iris Morales is a lifelong activist for social justice, racial and gender equality, and the decolonization of Puerto Rico. Her love of community, history, and storytelling has led her to wide-ranging collaborations on these issues with activists, writers, and artists and to the founding of Red Sugarcane Press. Morales holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law and an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.

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