ON TV
Piri Thomas and EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET
Re: Documentary on Nuyorican poet Piri Thomas: EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET to air at 8 p.m. Aug. 18 on TUTV in Puerto Rico. This program may also be seen online (go to TUTV's site at www.tutv.puertorico.pr).
Combining poetry, documentary and drama, EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET explores the life and work of Piri Thomas, the 75-year-old Afro-Cuban-Puerto Rican poet and author of Down These Mean Streets. A landmark of modern American literature, this 1967 autobiographical novel continues to be taught in schools for its groundbreaking bilingual style and its realistic portrayal of youth, imprisonment and search for racial identity.
Like the novel, the film traces Thomas’ path from childhood to manhood in New York City’s Spanish Harlem from the 1930s to the 1960s: his home life during the Great Depression, membership in barrio youth gangs, travels as a teenage merchant marine, addiction to heroin, notorious armed robbery of a Greenwich Village nightclub, six years spent in prison and eventual emergence as a writer.
As the first writer of Puerto Rican ancestry to receive national recognition in the United States, Piri Thomas is not just a cultural icon, but also a community treasure. His poetry has inspired and influenced generations of students, artists and activists. But Thomas is not simply a writer. When he started on his own path towards self-reclamation and self-respect, he also made a commitment to help others do the same. Since his release from prison in 1956, Thomas has devoted himself to the development, health and well being of young adults. As a social worker, he pioneered violence prevention and drug treatment efforts. As an educator, he has promoted literacy and taught writing in order to stimulate artistic expression—not only as a means of human enrichment, but also as a tool of individual and community survival. And as a poet, Thomas’ rhythm and style pre-figured rap by decades.
A stylized, genre-spanning production, EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET includes a spellbinding collage of rare archival footage, still photographs and provocative mixed-media artwork, as it explores Thomas’ use of creativity as a means of overcoming violence and isolation. This coming-of-age story is counter-pointed with dramatizations, spoken word and vérité scenes of Thomas’ ongoing work as an educator and activist empowering marginalized and incarcerated youths. Pulsating with an original Latin jazz score, this is a riveting portrait of a life lived through struggle, self-discovery and transformation.
EVERY CHILD IS BORN A POET, produced and directed by Jonathan Robinson, is part of a weekly PBS series called Independent Lens.
For more information, visit: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/everychildisbornapoet.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
ON TV
"Every Mother's Son"
In the late 1990s, three victims of police brutality made headlines around the country: Amadou Diallo, the young West African man whose killing sparked intense public protest; Anthony Baez, killed in an illegal choke-hold; and Gary (Gidone) Busch, a Hasidic Jew shot and killed outside his Brooklyn home. "Every Mother's Son" tells of the victims' three mothers who came together to demand justice and accountability.
"Every Mother's Son" is up next on P.O.V. on Tuesday,
August 17th at 10 P.M. (ET) on PBS.
Be sure to check your local listings for the airtime in
your area - visit http://www.pbs.org/pov/everymothersson
and click the link next to the premiere date which reads
"check local listings."
On the "Every Mother's Son" website you can also find
a film synopsis, photos and trailer, an interview with the filmmakers
and more:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/everymothersson
"Every Mother's Son"
In the late 1990s, three victims of police brutality made headlines around the country: Amadou Diallo, the young West African man whose killing sparked intense public protest; Anthony Baez, killed in an illegal choke-hold; and Gary (Gidone) Busch, a Hasidic Jew shot and killed outside his Brooklyn home. "Every Mother's Son" tells of the victims' three mothers who came together to demand justice and accountability.
"Every Mother's Son" is up next on P.O.V. on Tuesday,
August 17th at 10 P.M. (ET) on PBS.
Be sure to check your local listings for the airtime in
your area - visit http://www.pbs.org/pov/everymothersson
and click the link next to the premiere date which reads
"check local listings."
On the "Every Mother's Son" website you can also find
a film synopsis, photos and trailer, an interview with the filmmakers
and more:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/everymothersson
Monday, August 16, 2004
Commentary
Vieques’ Revenge
By Cecil Harris
Puerto Rico Sun
The final score of Puerto Rico 92, United States 73 still shocks those who cling to the outdated notion that U.S. superiority in basketball is a given, somehow part of an American’s birthright. The truth, however, is it doesn’t matter anymore that basketball was created in the mainland U.S.—albeit by a Canadian, Dr. James Naismith—because the days of other teams genuflecting before American squads are long gone.
Finally, the phrase “Dream Team,” as it relates to USA Men’s Olympic Basketball, can be retired for good. The phrase is as anachronistic today as the Soviet Union, amateur athletics and American diplomacy.
On Sunday, August 15, 2004 in Athens, Greece, a team of pampered NBA millionaires with an aversion to defense, perimeter shooting, free-throw shooting and team play was humiliated by a team from Puerto Rico before the eyes of the world. Never before had a U.S. team composed of NBA stars lost in Olympic competition.
But this was no fluke. Puerto Rico exposed the flaws of the U.S. team from start to finish. Led by point guard Carlos Arroyo, who had game-highs with 24 points and 7 assists, Puerto Rico held a 22-point lead at halftime. Despite a plethora of bigger names on Team USA—names like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Lamar Odom, LeBron James and Stephon Marbury—Arroyo, a starter for the NBA’s Utah Jazz, was the best player on the court.
August 15 may be forever celebrated in Puerto Rico as Vieques’ Revenge. Vieques is the island bought by the U.S. Navy in the 1940s after which many families and farmers were forced to leave to make way for decades of bombing runs and military practices. The inhumane policy prompted years of protest, and an occasional tear-gassing response from the Navy. Finally, President George W. Bush announced in June 2001 that the Navy would leave the island. According the Web site viequeslibre.org, May 8, 2003 marked the first day on Vieques in more than 60 years that was free of bombing.
The U.S. Navy pushed the people of Vieques around for generations, and USA Basketball lorded over the sports world for just as long. Yet Puerto Rico brought an athletic superpower to its knees. Puerto Rico’s strategy was to force Team USA team to shoot from outside. As Iverson told NBC television after the game, “We don’t want to shoot (from) outside. We want to get easy baskets and run.”
Yet the well-schooled Puerto Rico squad packed in its defense to limit easy baskets and invite shots from the perimeter. Team USA shot a dreadful 35 percent from the field, including an obscene 3-for-24 from 3-point range. That’s 12.5 percent shooting on 3-point shots, despite a three-point semicircle that is 20 feet, 6 inches away in the Olympics as opposed to 23 feet, 9 inches away in the NBA. Quite simply, Puerto Rico forced Team USA to do what it did not want to do and could not do well—shoot from the perimeter.
Other teams will pick up on Puerto Rico’s strategy, which will make it exceedingly difficult for Team USA to win a fourth straight Olympics basketball gold medal.
Team USA first sent NBA players to the Olympics in 1992 after a squad composed of college stars finished third in the 1988 Games. The 1992 team was the only true Dream Team—Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Karl Malone, John Stockton et al. Every member of that team (except Christian Laettner) is in the Basketball Hall of Fame or soon will be. From the team that Puerto Rico dominated on August 15, only Duncan and Iverson are certain to be Hall of Famers.
At least lazy broadcasters and headline writers should no longer refer to just any U.S. grouping of NBA players as a “Dream Team.” Such laziness should have ceased in 2002 when Team USA finished sixth in the World Championships in Indianapolis and the NBA’s arrogant, showboating, trash-talking style went over like lead-based paint.
Many will look at Puerto Rico 92, USA 73 and say the rest of the world has caught up. But strictly in terms of playing basketball as a five-man unit, other teams have passed the U.S.A. Puerto Rico has only two NBA players on its Olympic squad (Arroyo and forward Jose Ortiz), but it played as a team—not as a motley crew of self-indulgent individuals.
No matter what else happens at the 2004 Olympics, the Puerto Rico men’s basketball team made history, humbling the once-invincible Team USA. Only after 40 minutes of game time did Puerto Rico’s dominance end. Only then could Team USA feel a sense of relief. Now they could be left alone. Finally. The people in Vieques know the feeling.
#
Cecil Harris is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Yonkers, New York.
Harris is the author of BREAKING THE ICE The Black Experience in Professional Hockey (Insomniac Press, 2003) and the screenplays The Iceman and White Chocolate. Harris worked as a sports journalist for daily newspapers, magazines and an Internet site. Among his many accomplishments in journalism, he covered the National Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers for The Indianapolis Star and the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina and the New York Rangers and New York Islanders for Newsday.
Harris has covered such major events as the World Series, the American League Division Series, the American League Championship Series, the NBA Finals, the NBA playoffs, the NCAA men's basketball championships, the NCAA Division I football national championship game, the Stanley Cup finals, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the U.S. Open tennis championships, All Star Games in baseball and hockey, the New York City marathon, the Millrose Games and the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Harris contributes to sports columns to Puerto Rico Sun.
Check out Harris' website at www.cecilharris.com.
Vieques’ Revenge
By Cecil Harris
Puerto Rico Sun
The final score of Puerto Rico 92, United States 73 still shocks those who cling to the outdated notion that U.S. superiority in basketball is a given, somehow part of an American’s birthright. The truth, however, is it doesn’t matter anymore that basketball was created in the mainland U.S.—albeit by a Canadian, Dr. James Naismith—because the days of other teams genuflecting before American squads are long gone.
Finally, the phrase “Dream Team,” as it relates to USA Men’s Olympic Basketball, can be retired for good. The phrase is as anachronistic today as the Soviet Union, amateur athletics and American diplomacy.
On Sunday, August 15, 2004 in Athens, Greece, a team of pampered NBA millionaires with an aversion to defense, perimeter shooting, free-throw shooting and team play was humiliated by a team from Puerto Rico before the eyes of the world. Never before had a U.S. team composed of NBA stars lost in Olympic competition.
But this was no fluke. Puerto Rico exposed the flaws of the U.S. team from start to finish. Led by point guard Carlos Arroyo, who had game-highs with 24 points and 7 assists, Puerto Rico held a 22-point lead at halftime. Despite a plethora of bigger names on Team USA—names like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Lamar Odom, LeBron James and Stephon Marbury—Arroyo, a starter for the NBA’s Utah Jazz, was the best player on the court.
August 15 may be forever celebrated in Puerto Rico as Vieques’ Revenge. Vieques is the island bought by the U.S. Navy in the 1940s after which many families and farmers were forced to leave to make way for decades of bombing runs and military practices. The inhumane policy prompted years of protest, and an occasional tear-gassing response from the Navy. Finally, President George W. Bush announced in June 2001 that the Navy would leave the island. According the Web site viequeslibre.org, May 8, 2003 marked the first day on Vieques in more than 60 years that was free of bombing.
The U.S. Navy pushed the people of Vieques around for generations, and USA Basketball lorded over the sports world for just as long. Yet Puerto Rico brought an athletic superpower to its knees. Puerto Rico’s strategy was to force Team USA team to shoot from outside. As Iverson told NBC television after the game, “We don’t want to shoot (from) outside. We want to get easy baskets and run.”
Yet the well-schooled Puerto Rico squad packed in its defense to limit easy baskets and invite shots from the perimeter. Team USA shot a dreadful 35 percent from the field, including an obscene 3-for-24 from 3-point range. That’s 12.5 percent shooting on 3-point shots, despite a three-point semicircle that is 20 feet, 6 inches away in the Olympics as opposed to 23 feet, 9 inches away in the NBA. Quite simply, Puerto Rico forced Team USA to do what it did not want to do and could not do well—shoot from the perimeter.
Other teams will pick up on Puerto Rico’s strategy, which will make it exceedingly difficult for Team USA to win a fourth straight Olympics basketball gold medal.
Team USA first sent NBA players to the Olympics in 1992 after a squad composed of college stars finished third in the 1988 Games. The 1992 team was the only true Dream Team—Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Karl Malone, John Stockton et al. Every member of that team (except Christian Laettner) is in the Basketball Hall of Fame or soon will be. From the team that Puerto Rico dominated on August 15, only Duncan and Iverson are certain to be Hall of Famers.
At least lazy broadcasters and headline writers should no longer refer to just any U.S. grouping of NBA players as a “Dream Team.” Such laziness should have ceased in 2002 when Team USA finished sixth in the World Championships in Indianapolis and the NBA’s arrogant, showboating, trash-talking style went over like lead-based paint.
Many will look at Puerto Rico 92, USA 73 and say the rest of the world has caught up. But strictly in terms of playing basketball as a five-man unit, other teams have passed the U.S.A. Puerto Rico has only two NBA players on its Olympic squad (Arroyo and forward Jose Ortiz), but it played as a team—not as a motley crew of self-indulgent individuals.
No matter what else happens at the 2004 Olympics, the Puerto Rico men’s basketball team made history, humbling the once-invincible Team USA. Only after 40 minutes of game time did Puerto Rico’s dominance end. Only then could Team USA feel a sense of relief. Now they could be left alone. Finally. The people in Vieques know the feeling.
#
Cecil Harris is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Yonkers, New York.
Harris is the author of BREAKING THE ICE The Black Experience in Professional Hockey (Insomniac Press, 2003) and the screenplays The Iceman and White Chocolate. Harris worked as a sports journalist for daily newspapers, magazines and an Internet site. Among his many accomplishments in journalism, he covered the National Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers for The Indianapolis Star and the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina and the New York Rangers and New York Islanders for Newsday.
Harris has covered such major events as the World Series, the American League Division Series, the American League Championship Series, the NBA Finals, the NBA playoffs, the NCAA men's basketball championships, the NCAA Division I football national championship game, the Stanley Cup finals, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the U.S. Open tennis championships, All Star Games in baseball and hockey, the New York City marathon, the Millrose Games and the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Harris contributes to sports columns to Puerto Rico Sun.
Check out Harris' website at www.cecilharris.com.
A Letter to the Editor
Re: News -- The U.S.A. men's Olympic basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico in Athens on Aug. 15.
Shaggy Flores - New Generation Nuyorican Poeta wrote in an Aug. 15 e-mail:
Familia,
Remember that movie Miracle, that opened last year where the under dog U.S. Hockey team beats the USSR? Remember how everyone went ballistic when the U.S. won?
There's nothing better then waking up this afternoon to see a bunch of overpaid prima-donna's get their butts handed to them by some Boricuas from the island. Not just beat them but I mean, beat them from the very beginning of the game. Outplay them in every way. The Olympics are great!!!
Hey, wait a minute, aren't the players on the U.S. team getting paid a whole bunch of dinero just to dribble the ball and make shots at the NBA for a living. Now we know why the NBA doesn't want other teams in other countries to join the action.
Not too long ago T-Mac got into a confrontation with a player from P.R. named Casiano because of remarks that the NBA players were spoiled and overpaid. Fast forward to today and Casiano was schooling the higher paid and sponsorship endorsed team. Did you see the 3 pointer that Casiano shot from far away in the last seconds? Man, this was as good as seeing the Italians stomp on the U.S.
Don't get me wrong, I like watching the NBA since growing up watching Dr. J, Jordan, Spud Webb, Wilkins, Jabbar, Lakers, Celtics when real players put their heart and soul on the floor. This olympic team is a joke, how are you going to represent us nationally and play like a bunch of scrubs.
Sure, I know that might hurt some sports fans out there but truth is truth, if your only job is to play ball then you might as well be nice at what you do. This is why I like watching Street Ball where everyday cats are playing the game not just for the money, but also for respect and love.
Anyway, today was sheer poetry and a wake up call that Boricuas are in the house!!!! Might just have to write a poem about the experience!!!
Pa'lante Arroyo! Pa'lante Casiano! Puerto Rico, Ho!!!!!!
Shaggy Flores
nuyorican poeta
www.shaggyflores.com
Re: News -- The U.S.A. men's Olympic basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico in Athens on Aug. 15.
Shaggy Flores - New Generation Nuyorican Poeta
Familia,
Remember that movie Miracle, that opened last year where the under dog U.S. Hockey team beats the USSR? Remember how everyone went ballistic when the U.S. won?
There's nothing better then waking up this afternoon to see a bunch of overpaid prima-donna's get their butts handed to them by some Boricuas from the island. Not just beat them but I mean, beat them from the very beginning of the game. Outplay them in every way. The Olympics are great!!!
Hey, wait a minute, aren't the players on the U.S. team getting paid a whole bunch of dinero just to dribble the ball and make shots at the NBA for a living. Now we know why the NBA doesn't want other teams in other countries to join the action.
Not too long ago T-Mac got into a confrontation with a player from P.R. named Casiano because of remarks that the NBA players were spoiled and overpaid. Fast forward to today and Casiano was schooling the higher paid and sponsorship endorsed team. Did you see the 3 pointer that Casiano shot from far away in the last seconds? Man, this was as good as seeing the Italians stomp on the U.S.
Don't get me wrong, I like watching the NBA since growing up watching Dr. J, Jordan, Spud Webb, Wilkins, Jabbar, Lakers, Celtics when real players put their heart and soul on the floor. This olympic team is a joke, how are you going to represent us nationally and play like a bunch of scrubs.
Sure, I know that might hurt some sports fans out there but truth is truth, if your only job is to play ball then you might as well be nice at what you do. This is why I like watching Street Ball where everyday cats are playing the game not just for the money, but also for respect and love.
Anyway, today was sheer poetry and a wake up call that Boricuas are in the house!!!! Might just have to write a poem about the experience!!!
Pa'lante Arroyo! Pa'lante Casiano! Puerto Rico, Ho!!!!!!
Shaggy Flores
nuyorican poeta
www.shaggyflores.com
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