PRSUN Radio chats with County of Kings' Lemon Andersen

Lemon Andersen is my guest Wednesday at 11 a.m. on PRSUN Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

County of Kings is playing now in NYC.

About Lemon and his County of Kings:
Half Puerto Rican. Half Norwegian. Two-time felon. One hell of a show.
Featured earlier this year as part of The Public Theater's Under The Radar Festival,Lemon Andersen's County of Kings gives a tough, yet poignant biographical account of a good kid growing up in an unforgiving environment. Lemon, whose parents met at a methadone clinic and passed away from AIDS, served two prison sentences before he was 21 and won a Tony before he turned 30. His on-stage memoir touches on young love, the birth of hip hop, slinging crack, ballet, stealing car parts, prison, and poetry as he takes the audience on an astonishing and surprising one-man journey toward self-discovery. Weaving hard-edged drama with urban poetry, the Brooklyn born and bred performer tells his coming-of-age story with profound honesty, compassion and humor. A true story of finding passion in the arts and finding one's way, Lemon paints a vivid portrait of his own life and the lives of countless other Brooklynites during the 1980s and 1990s.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lemon Andersen has been featured as a regular on HBO's "Def Poetry" presented by Russell Simmons and was also an original cast member and writer of Russell Simmons' Tony Award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. On screen Lemon has appeared opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's Inside Man and The Soloist starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. -- www.countyofkingstheplay.com

Check out this recent review in the New York Times:
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/theater/reviews/13county.html



UPDATE: To listen to my archived interview with Lemon, go to www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

NYC to show its solidarity with Puerto Rico's National Strike

There will be a rally tomorrow at 5 p.m. in New York City in support of the national strike in Puerto Rico. This comes after Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño laid off thousands of government workers earlier this month, citing the island's poor economy as the culprit that has led him to make some tough decisions in this difficult financial time. But the layoffs have led different sectors on the island to engage in civil disobedience. The national strike on the island is also tomorrow.

To participate in NYC's rally:

5 p.m. Thursday, October 15th
PRFAA, 135 West 50th street (between 6th & 7th Avenues), Manhattan

The NYC Chapter of National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights is a sponsor.

Puerto Rico Sun is in solidarity. While it is true that the governor did need to cut workers from the government payroll because it is too big, the sudden number of layoffs are just too drastic and negatively impact too many poor and working class families on the island. These cuts are only making the unemployment problem on the island even bigger than it is.

Luis Muñoz Marín: The New York Years

Community calendar

Research Seminar & Exhibit Luis Muñoz Marín: The New York Years
Presenter: Mario Pérez Miranda, Centro Dissertation Fellow Exhibition launch, reception to follow

Thursday, October 15, 6:00 pm
Centro Library (at Hunter College) East Bldg. 3rd Floor, Main Library Entrance, Manhattan
http://www.centropr.org/events.html?event=56

PRSUN Radio chats with Pepper Negron

My upcoming guest is Pepper Negron, director, screenwriter, filmmaker, photographer, dreamer...

Go to my entry at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

The show will air at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

UPDATE: To listen to my interview with Pepper Negron, go to my archives at http://blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

NYC cultural act to protest book ban in Puerto Rico

In the mailbox

Hola Familia

As many of you know several literary works - including "El Entierro de Cortijo/Cortijo's Wake" by Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá and Aura by Carlos Fuentes - have been banned in Puerto Rico by the conservative right party currently in power. This is an act of devolution that sets our society back by hundreds of years and its an action usually associated with intolerant and totalitarian governments.

This is why El Puerto Rican Embassy is calling for all Puerto Rican/Nuyorican artists, writers and educators to join us on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 2 p.m. in front of Rev. Pedro Pietri's mural on 104th Street for a Cultural Act that will be photographed and videotaped in order to support writers and artists in Puerto Rico and show solidarity with this new struggle they are now facing.

Below I have included an Embassy press release and I have also attached a more creative version I've designed to reference official documents that have been censored before releasing them to the general public.

I ask that you forward this message to all you think may be interested in joining us.

Gracias y saludos!
Adal Maldonado
Artistic Director/Resident Dissident
El Puerto Rican Embassy