Beneath the Spanish

Victor Hernandez Cruz is a major poet of the Nuyorican school and co-founded the East Harlem Gut Theatre and the Before Columbus Foundation. Closely associated with both it and Second Generation New York school poets, his work speaks to others on the CHP list, most particularly Ron Padgett. These poems are sometimes prosey, and sometimes close to songs, but always inclined to be performed, and pleasurable for even casual readers of poetry. He's been the recipient or nominee of several major awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim and na NEA grant. He was the Chancellor of the Academic of American Poets from 2008-13.