El Morro, San Juan Puerto Rico

El Morro, San Juan Puerto Rico
Originally uploaded by Fernando Cuevas.

Artist Spotlight: Ricky Flores

South Bronx is a 'Refreshing Adventure' for this Boricua Photographer

Black and white images depict the story of Puerto Ricans living among the South Bronx rubble back in the day. Photos tell the stories of young people riding trains plagued with graffiti and playing on lots full of debris.
Despite all the poverty and the urban decay all around them, many of these people, many of them young men and women, are seen smiling, dancing and having a good time in the photos captured by Ricky Flores.
Today, the South Bronx is not the same as the one captured in Flores' photos. It surely isn't as rundown as it was back then. The South Bronx has certainly changed for the better even though it is still considered one of the poorest congressional districts in the country.
Yet, those images of the Bronx of yesterday can and will probably never be forgotten.
While many young people didn't survive, many others not only survived but helped bring the South Bronx back. One such survivor is Flores who became a professional photographer, documenting, among other things, the story of Puerto Ricans in New York.
Puerto Rico Sun asked Flores, who is also known as rigglord and is a contributing photographer to the Puerto Rico Sun and Bronx Latino photo groups at flickr.com, to share some of his thoughts on the photos he has been posting on his site lately. This photojournalist has been uploading many of his old images of the South Bronx. The majority of the photos currently on the site were taken during the 1980's. Flores says that the photos mainly focus on Puerto Ricans in New York, specifically in the South Bronx. Flores is drawing a whole new worldwide audience to view images of the old Bronx, which he describes as adventurous, nostalgic and painful.
The photos in a way are a reflection of his journey in life as a Puerto Rican, Bronxite, New Yorker, and photographer.
Here is what Flores had to say in his own words:
The photos that you see streaming (at his photo site at www.flickr.com/photos/rickyflores) were started from a series of photographs exploring the life of being a Puerto Rican in New York called Ser Puertorriqueño, a search for my own identity as a Puerto Rican. It spun off as a permanent installation called "License to Dream," which you can get details about at www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/flores.shtml .
Looking at them now is a refreshing adventure, tinged with nostalgia and pain. Many of the photographs show friends who died from drug abuse or of AIDS. Given the amount of time that has passed since I took them, they now have a historical value. Images that I would have never have shown then, now have a value simply because of what they show and the location of where they were taken. The photos I am streaming now are images of the South Bronx.
As time goes on, you will see more work of my coverage of demonstrations and riots that were centered around issues of racism and police brutality within New York City.
Currently, I'm a photojournalist at The Journal News in Westchester County and sit as a member of the Board of Advisors for En Foco (www.enfoco.org/ ) a Bronx-based non-profit organization dedicated to cultural diversity in photography.


To check out more of Flores' images, visit his photo site at www.flickr.com/photos/rickyflores. It is worth visiting. -- Clarisel Gonzalez

(photos by Ricky Flores)

From the PRSUN TV Archives

Voices for the Voiceless poetry event @ Amherst College, Amherst, MA, December 2005

In 2005, PRSUN TV accepted an invitation from poet Jaime "Shaggy" Flores to head north to Massachusetts for a night of poetry.

This is an edited shorter version of PRSUN TV's Voices for the Voiceless show, which originally aired on Bronxnet in the Bronx.

From the PRSUN TV Archives

Flashback

BLOGS photo exhibit in 2005 @ MediaNoche in NYC's El Barrio

More than 200 photographers and photo enthusiasts from different parts of the world took part in this virtual exhibit, curated by moi. The paricipating artists are members of three photo groups on flickr.com. They are NYC Exposition, Puerto Rico Sun and East Harlem. PRSUN TV talks to some of the boricuas/Latinos who took part.

This is a shorter version of the PRSUN TV show that originally aired on Bronxnet in the Bronx.



PRSUN TV is currently working on its video archives. More shows will be available online. New shows coming soon.

Thanks for your support of PRSUN TV. -- Clarisel Gonzalez, producer

Religion

Pope's Visit to the U.S.

Pope Benedict XVI Benedict arrives today for a six-day visit to Washington and then New York. His visit will be filled with a lineup of activities of course. The pope will meet President Bush at the White House where he plans to speak to the president about immigration and other issues. He will also speak at the U.N., visit ground zero and celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx before leaving Sunday night.

Here's a video welcoming the pope from The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first Catholic diocese in the United States:

In the Mailbox

Dear Friends,

City Lore and the Brooklyn Historical Society are hosting a free community discussion "Latino History in Brooklyn: Voices from the Puerto Rican Oral History Project 1974-1976" during the Mayor's Immigrant Heritage Week in New York City.

Sunday, April 20th, 3-5 p.m.
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street
Free
For more information, log on to Brooklyn Historical Society's website or call 718-419-4285 ext 233.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, so therefore are migrants and not immigrants, but they have encountered similar concerns as others who underwent the immigrant experience.

Puerto Rican community historian Ralph Mendez will present his collection of steamship artifacts and research about early-20th century migration from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn. City Lore's folklorist Elena Martinez will discuss audio clips from BHS's Puerto Rican Oral History Project collected in the early 1970s with narrators telling their steamship migration stories; and all will be complemented by a presentation of portraits of Puerto Rican pioñeros by Brooklyn photographer Tony Velez.

For information about the Mayor's Immigrant Heritage Week, visit nyc.gov/immigrants or call 311.

Film


The Havana Film Festival New York will collaborate with Hunter College’s Center for Puerto Rican Studies on a two-day program of Puerto Rican movies called Centro at the Movies, scheduled for Monday, April 14, and Tuesday, April 15, at Hunter College School of Social Work. This will include a presentation and films highlighting the center’s role in sponsoring and promoting Puerto Rican documentary films over the past 30 years.
Admission is free. Just click on the image to see larger.

Cabo Rojo lighthouse

Cabo Rojo lighthouse
Originally uploaded by KAP'n Craig.

El Choliceo

El Choliceo
Originally uploaded by EdVeguilla.

¡GOZA Y BAILA LA PLENA!

Dance



FAMILIA,

Prepárense pa' echar un pie con La Plena Boricua, al estilo de Los Pleneros de la 21, esta noche en ¡GOZA Y BAILA LA PLENA!

LA PLENA IS BACK !!!

Come join us in this dance/concert with your friends, family and neighbors so that you can all DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY together to original musical compositions and interpretations of traditional and contemporary plenas LP21 style!
This unique concert is guaranteed to make you dance all night with live performances by the LP21 ensemble, guest artists and members of LP21’s pioneer class of Bomba & Plena: Un Paso Alante - our new Urban Institute for emerging and midcareer traditional arts practitioners and musicians!
Admission: $15
For tickets or more information, call (212)427-5221 or e-mail rioloizapr@yahoo.com.

Hosted By: Los Pleneros de la 21
When: Friday, April 11
at 8 p.m.
Where: Julia de Burgos Cultural Center
1680 Lexintgon Avenue
El Barrio, NYC

source: Los Pleneros de la 21