VivirLatino

The second presentation of El Rev. Pedro Pietri Hand Awards to take place on Friday, June 12, 2009 at Hunter College, Faculty Dining Room, West Building – 8th Floor, 68th Street at Lexington Avenue starting at 7 P.M.

El Rev. Pedro Pietri Hand Award honors the memory of Rev. Pedro Pietri, one of the most gifted poet/playwrights of the Twentieth Century and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poetry Movement, and was created to recognize significant artistic and cultural contributions by Puerto Rican/Nuyorican poets, artists, musicians and political activists working in their respective fields today.
This year El Rev. Pedro Pietri Hand Award will be presented to Miriam Colón – actor and founder of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, José “Chegui” Torres – first Puerto Rican Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, journalist and best selling author of Sting like a bee, the biography of Muhammad Ali, Ntozake Shange – poet/playwright and author of For Colored Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow’s Enuff, Carlos Ortíz – photographer and filmmaker and producer/director of Machito: A Latin Jazz Legacy, Dylcia Pagan – activist, filmmaker and visual artist and Tato Laviera – poet/playwright and winner of the American Book Award for En Clave.

The evening will be hosted by Mariposa and Adál Maldonado with surprise guests and will feature performances by spoken word artists and poets Miguel Algarín, Ntozake Shange,
Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, Tato Laviera, Mariposa, Frank Pérez, Speedo, Patty Dukes, and comedy with Cindy SugaRush Casado.

Musical performances will include Jose Saavedra,Raquel Z. Rivera, and Ralphie Sabater and His Orchestra. The evening will also feature video art and film. An award winning short film West Side Story Upside Down, Sideways, Backwards and Out of Focus by Adál Maldonado, highlights from Machito a Latin Jazz Legacy by Carlos Ortíz, and out takes from El Viejito Bismarck’s very idiosyncratic and Latino take on Family Guy.

El Rev. Pedro Pietri Hand Award is an Object d’ Art designed by Adál Maldonado with a custom made ring designed in collaboration with Olga Ayala.