Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Just last year, Miguel Algarin visited the campus of the University of Florida and performed some poetry for us. I never really understood poetry in high school, but that's because I was never exposed to such a book as Aloud and the style of the poetry slams. This book begs to be performed and shared. The verses sing, scream, coerce and laugh off of the pages. I love the idea of "poetry as language" and hope there will be much more to come from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. Poetry's not dead after all.

This has got to be the best anthology around.So many different styles of poetry. It has become my favorite book in my entire collection. I have given this book to freinds who swear they hate poetry and have changed their whole outlook on the art.I first read this 4 years ago and it inspired me to pick up my pen (after not writing for almost ten years) and make my voice heard

i was shocked by the enormous beauty contained in the words - the simple english, spanish, or hybrid mixture words - how much emotion, how much skin and sweat can be placed within them. i am a poetry fan, but what i like is particular and peculiar. the poetry in this book speaks to and about human beings in the honest, skin-blood-bones-organs-nerves way that i feel has not been captured since the Beats. while i love sylvia plath, this poetry contains none of the almost ascetic, sterile, abstraction of most poetry, poetry like how you think "british" when you think poetry. this is tactile poetry, and though one may not personally relate to the writer, one would hope (I would hope) that the reader can relate to the words as they are placed, the emotion invoked and evoked by the words-plus-tone, by the very act of those very particular words placed together to create this poetry. this is where appreciation lies. this is where poetry is. this is turning feeling and thought and experience into sounds and words - into poetry.

This darn book had me laughing and second guessing myself. The poems are filled with things that you usually only share with your close friends. It pounces upon the thing we all find ourselves saying to someone else at some point in our life: "You think that too? I thought I was the only one!". I love this collection. I first found it when I was 18, and have since found myself quoting it, or at least recalling some of the poems fondly.

When I bought my first copy of "Aloud," it was 1994. Four years later I have given numerous copies away of this anthology that brings American poetry audiences home. This home is one filled with anger, laughter, skepticism, worry, joy, love, dreaming and observation built with the tools of post-modern exploration. "Aloud" is where poets and readers begin to understand the 1990's. As a lover of poetry, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe takes readers on a ride to life as it is, not as it was in the traditional poetry we grew up reading in school. This is a significant reason why I use this anthology to teach my college students that poetry DOES speak to you, IS about you and IS written by people like you. Poetry has a glorious tradition and the 'now' poetry of "Aloud" demands a place in that tradition. If you truly love poetry, you will truly become a lover of this text. My only disappointment is that there isn't another anthology from this haven of rhythm and soul. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.