Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire

by Jose Angel Figueroa, Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator), Iris Morales (Editor)

Overview

Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire is José Angel Figueroa's newest poetry and prose collection. As a leading writer of the Nuyorican literary movement in the United States, Figueroa is best known for his powerful social commentary and mastery of visual imagery. His writings — lyrical and rhythmic, at times autobiographical, and sometimes politically charged — do not fit neatly into one style or category. In this collection, Figueroa explores universal themes of the human experience as well as contemporary social issues with an intriguing range of approaches that include poetic storytelling, short essays, monologues, and elegies.


Heartbeats, Rhythms, And Fire invites the reader to question the origins of self, the construction of time, the roots of love, and the unpredictability vibrating from everyday life and crossing paths with unusual people. Figueroa's accounts of migration journeys and racism offer an insider perspective. His narratives of poverty, violence against women, and entrenched injustice uplift the voices of everyday people, while others capture the passion and fire of frontline activists who toppled the governor of Puerto Rico in 2019, and others like Erica Garner who fought police violence, and Oscar Lopez Rivera, the former Puerto Rican political prisoner. Figueroa shares a voyage that ebbs and flows arriving to where he concludes no one "can't kill relentless faith born from the spirituals of stardust and many rivers."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940163166510
Publisher:	Red Sugarcane Press Inc
Publication date:	12/09/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

AUTHOR:
José Angel Figueroa was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico but grew up in the Southeast Bronx. He is a poet, playwright, actor, editor, and professor. Figueroa is best known for a diverse body of work that reflects ond to the Latinx experience; the colonization of Puerto Rico, and the exploitation of people of color in the United States. Among his books are: The Invisibles (coauthor George Malave), A Mirror In My Own Backstage, Un Espejo En Mi Propio Bastidor, Hypocrisy Held Hostage, Noo Jork, and East 110th Street.

An early writer of the Puerto Rican experience in New York, Figueroa was a major contributor to the Neorican literary movement and the original Nuyorican Poets Café, and is credited in The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, The Hispanic Condition: Reflections on Culture & Identity in America, and The Nuyorican Experience. His writings have been internationally translated, published, and widely anthologized in Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Papiros De Babel: Antologia de la poesía puertorriqueña en Nueva York, Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America, and Puerto Rican Writers at Home in the USA, among others.

ARTIST:
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.

Many of Gutierrez’s artworks illustrate musical themes such as the cover for Carlos Santana’s musical recording, “Shaman,” which was also used as a set design at the 2002 Super Bowl half-time show and on promotions to fight AIDS in South Africa. He also created the U.S. Postal Service Stamp for the Musical Icon Series of Jimi Hendrix. Gutierrez’s paintings of John Coltrane, originally used for the book Spirit Seeker-John Coltrane's Musical Journey, were commissioned for the film, "Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary."

Gutierrez is a tenured professor at Pratt Institute where he has taught since 1990.