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Books by Louis Reyes Rivera
Who Pays The Cost (1978) /
This One For You (1983) /
Scattered
Scripture
Bum Rush the Page
(co-editor) /
The Bandana Republic (co-editor)
Sancocho: A Book of Nuyorican Poetry by Shaggy
Flores (edited by Louis Reyes Rivera)
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Review of
Scattered
Scripture
Reaching,
Claiming, Lunging for the Universe of Things
Often compared to Arturo A.
Schomberg & Ramon Emeterio Betances, Louis Reyes Rivera is
viewed by many as a bridge between our Pan-American African &
Latino Communities. With this third book of poetry (Who Pays the
Cost, This One For You), he demonstrates why he is called the
"Janitor of History."
Here is testament on behalf of the
disinherited; an oration against the distortions of history;
poetry at its finest. Every stanza & line singes with sound,
sense, rhythm & color, agony & celebration. These 46
poems span 21 years of searching through the rubble of our own
contradiction.
His is not a bitter voice, though deep his
poems cut through pain & hope & human capacity. Their
intention, to confront our refusal to admit what we do to one
another. Their mission, to advance the clearest definition of
ourselves. their aim, accurate & compelling.
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Louis Reyes Rivera--known
as the "Janitor of History," poet/essayist--has been
studying his craft since 1960 and teaching it since 1969. The recipient
of over 20 awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), a
Special Congressional Recognition Award (1988), and the CCNY 125th
Anniversary Medal (1973), Rivera has assisted in the publication of well
over 200 books, including John Oliver Killens' Great Black Russian
(Wayne State U., 1989), Adal Maldonado's Portraits of the Puerto
Rican Experience (IPRUS, 1984), and Bum Rush The Page: A Def
Poetry Jam (Crown Publishers, 2001).
| Considered by many as a
necessary bridge between the African and Latino American communities, he
is a professor of Pan-African, African-American, Caribbean and Puerto
Rican literature and history whose essays and poems have appeared in
numerous publications, including Areyto, Boletin, The
City Sun, African Voices, and in five award-winning
collections: In Defense of Mumia; ALOUD: Live from the
Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Of Sons And Lovers, Bum Rush The
Page, and his own Scattered Scripture.
Since 1996, Rivera
continues to host a bi-monthly 1st & 3rd Sundays Jazzoetry &
Open Mic @ Sistas' Place (where he also conducts his writing
workshop), in Brooklyn, and has appeared in Jazz clubs and festivals
with The Sun Ra All-Stars Project, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora,
and his own band, The Jazzoets. He has recently appeared on
C-SPAN, as part of the REPARATIONS NOW! rally held in Washington, D.C.,
this past August 17th, and on Russell Simmons' DEF POETRY on HBO.
Currently, Louis Reyes Rivera can be heard every Thursday, at 2pm, on
radio station WBAI (99.5 FM), hosting his own weekly show, PERSPECTIVE. |
Contact: Shamal Books, GPO Box 16, NYC 10116
(718) 622 4426
See also Amin Sharif 's
A Review of
The
Bandana Republic
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Bill Moyers and James Cone (Interview) /
A Conversation with James Cone
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John
Coltrane, "Alabama" /
Kalamu ya Salaam, "Alabama"
/
A Love Supreme
A Blues for the Birmingham Four
/ Eulogy for the Young Victims
/ Six Dead After Church
Bombing
Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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Debt: The First 5,000 Years
By David Graeber
Before there was money, there was debt. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy. Economist Glenn Loury /Criminalizing a Race
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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