Performance Art is to me the glorification of the human spirit Luis Chaluisan Salsa Magazine

And as such it is the cultural documentation of the time in which it is produced. LYRICAL VOICE OF THE CITY By Clem Richardson / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. Paper of Record NY. Chamaco El Gangster Nuyorican Poets Cafe Carla Virola-Piano Adam Aron Amram-Drums Maria Hernandez-Vocal Brian Tully-Bass Paul Decoster-Guitar Kevin Twigg-Percussion El Extreme Luis Chaluisan - Vocal

Luis Chaluisan's nostrils are flaring, hands stabbing the air, his body taut and ready for a fight. And this is a half-hour before he and the latest incarnation of his group, El Extreme, take the stage at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. No one, not even Chaluisan, seems terribly worked up by his outburst. And small wonder. Chaluisan has been working the Nuyorican stage almost since Miguel Algarin, Miguel Pinero, Pedro Pietri, Lucky Cienfuegos and others founded it back in 1974 on E. Sixth St. Chaluisan, 48, estimates he has four hours of spoken-word poetry firmly encased in his head. Hunter College's Center for Puerto Rican Studies has chosen to archive Chaluisan's papers from 1975 to the present as representative of Puerto Rican contributions to the city's cultural scene. He will mark the occasion with a Dec. 22 performance at the Nuyorican, now on Third St. between Avenues B and C. Walking to his home just west of the Bronx's Wakefield neighborhood, Chaluisan tells a visitor when each building went up and what was there before. "My family came up here in 1963," he said. "There was nothing up here. I grew up with crickets and fireflies, man. They kept goats in that lot over there. " In an era when spoken-word poetry has carved out a niche in "slam" competitions and even on HBO's Def Poetry, Chaluisan's work is old-school - often as literate as it is lyrical, stuffed with images drawn from New York City life. Yiddish theater, to which he was exposed courtesy of Jewish godparents, supplied some of his perspective. "That voice is definitely there, in terms of expression and overall development of the form," he said. "Definitely the sentiment of being the other, if you want to use those terms, is there, the idea of knowing your art but at the same time not having it be known." "We're [Puerto Ricans] educated, but folks sometimes fail to realize we are educated beyond the stereotypical images that are out there," he said. Chaluisan blends literary forms with events from his life. A section in "Spic Chic" relates an incident involving an uncle and a surfboard he somehow found and took to the waters off Orchard Beach in the Bronx. But the poem in its entirety is meant as a rumination on Albert Einstein's unified field theory of the universe, he said. "That theory came out of Einstein's quest to find God," Chaluisan said. "The poem is my take on that quest. "His love of language sprang from his mother, with whom he learned English after the family moved here. An uncle introduced him to the writings of Joseph Conrad - "He said that was where I would find the real Wizard of Oz" - while the priests at Cardinal Hayes High School acquainted him with Dante's "Inferno," Mark Twain and other classics. "At that school, they made us go to different places where you did not normally go, like the Museum of Modern Art," he said. "I was sent to the lower East Side, and that was the first time I saw the Public Theater. It was another world. " It was his mother who gave Chaluisan the $20 for Christmas in 1974 that he spent to go to the Vivian Beaumont Theater and see Pinero's groundbreaking play about Puerto Ricans and African-Americans in prison, "Short Eyes. " "I was, like, 'Whoa! 'At that moment, when I saw what happened on that stage, I told my teachers that was what I wanted to be, a writer, a poet and an outlaw artist. " An Amherst College graduate - it took him 10 years, in part because of his expulsion for involvement in some building takeovers - Chaluisan worked as a reporter, television producer and radio-station executive. Chaluisan says his poetry and performance skills hark back to 1970s and '80s performers like Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets. His long-form, often funny storytelling is partly an homage to comic Richard Pryor. "He has a way of using humor to show the pathos in the human condition," Chaluisan said. crichardson@nydailynews. Presented by: WEPAwebTV - New Edge Theater WEPAwebTV Roughrican Productions Rocker Roller Rican vlɒɡ Salsamagazine.com 2014 Recognition Awards Federico Chaluisan L.f. Chaluisan Batlle Maria Hernandez Editors WEPAwebTV - New Edge Theater