Letter to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Posted on | November 6, 2008 | No Comments

Although living in Denmark, I am still on the mailinglist of the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café in New York, that I used to appreciate so much back when I lived there last year. The café is situated on 3rd Street between avenues B and C, right in the midst of the East Village, and is known as the epicentre of the New York slam poetry and spoken word scene.
Thus, it has a firm position in the cultural heritage of the village – the former counter-culture capital of the world that today, although only a shadow of itself compared to what it was a few decades back, is struggling to avoid the gentrification that is taking place in the rest of the city. Many activist groups work hard to keep chainstores out of the village and to achieve the preservation status of it’s west-side counterpart, Greeenwich Village. Something that, unfortunately, has not happened yet – and therefore the daily battle is happening on the street, lease by lease, cup of coffee by cup of coffee, between the corporations on one side and commoners on the other.

Although appreciating the monthly email updates from the Nuyorican, this last newsletter filled me with anything else than praise, as I learned that the café is acting as beneficiary of Avant-Grande, a spoken-word and visual art exhibition at the Metropolitan Pavilion – sponsored by….Starbucks! Could this really be? The mastodont chain that if anyone encapsulates the shallow mass production of culture that stands in direct opposition to everything the village stands for. In that light, even the name of the exhibition – Avant-“Grande” is disgusting (as you may know, ‘Grande’, is a cup size in Starbucks).

This is my letter to the Nuyorican:

Dear Nuyorican,

here is a little praise from two of your overseas supporters – and a little predicament.

My girlfriend and I live in Denmark and are Danes, but we lived for 6 six months on 7th Street and 1st last year and quickly came to appreciate the wonder of your great café. The lyrics, the atmosphere, the people – and the spirit, that seemed to capture the essense of the East Village so accurately. Many nights we enjoyed the greats slams, music nights and performances that took place while we were able to call ourselves New Yorkers for a brief period of time and throughout that time, the Nuyorican stood as one of the landmarks that represented the part of New York that makes it the greatest city in the world – and in our minds represented the incorruptable part of the East Village that has not yet succumbed to powers of normalization that is seen in the rest of the city, the US and the Western world.
Ever since we’ve had to go back to Europe, we’ve stayed on your mailinglist in order feel a little touch of that same feeling every time you send out newsletters. Those newsletters has helped us remember the great times we spent in your café – and they still do – but this last one touched us in another way too; only far less pleasant, when reading that the Nuyorican liaises with…Starbucks?!? Seriously? The chain of soulless and artificually mass contructed cafés that is suffocating the mom and pops cafés across the country and is known for it’s ruthless marketing strategies? The 278-on-Manhattan-strong chain that is lurking at the gate of the village with 3 outlets on Astor Place, as if ready to devour the former counter-culture capital at it’s earlist convience. Can this really be?

Kind regards (and immense astonishment),
Christian Villum & Diana Lythje
Denmark

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