Edwin Torres (born 1958) is a Nuyorican

performance poet Performance poetry is a broad term, encompassing a variety of styles and genres. In brief, it is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe ...

. His work incorporates vocal and physical improvisation. He is the author of ''Ameriscopia'', ''One Night: Poems for the Sleepy'', ''Yes Thing No Thing'', and several other poetic books. He also has produced recordings titled ''Oceano Rise'', ''Novo'', and ''Holy Kid''. He is a member of the

L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E The Language poets (or ''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E'' poets, after the magazine of that name) are an avant-garde group or tendency in United States poetry that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The poets included: Bernadette Mayer, Leslie Scalapi ...

school.

Early years

Torres's parents moved from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

and settled in the borough of

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His father died when he was young and he was then raised by his mother and her brother Martin. He received his primary and secondary education in New York.

Nuyorican Poets Cafe

In 1989 Torres began working as a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

and a year later he discovered the

Nuyorican Poets Cafe Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

, which inspired his creative instincts. Torres created a movement which he called "Interactive Eclectrcism", which combines movement, audience participation, music and songs. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe not only opened its door for his creation but it also opened the doors to a new world of reading poetry. Torres also created the "Poets Neurotica", where dancers and musicians performed alongside two to four poets. He was a member of "Real Live Poetry" from 1993–99, performing and conducting workshops across the US and overseas. Torres has represented New York in the 1992

National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year an ...

, celebrated in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and he has won the Nuyorican Poets Cafe First Annual Prize for Poetry with his poem "''Po-Mo Griot''". He has also appeared on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's Spoken Word Unplugged and the

Charlie Rose Show ''Charlie Rose'' (also known as ''The Charlie Rose Show'') is an American television interview and talk show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show was syndicated on PBS from 1991 until 2017 and is owned ...

and been featured on

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

, in Rolling Stone Magazine and in

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

. His poem, "I Saw Your Empire State Building" was included in the book, ''Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam''Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''

: Soft Skull Press. "Chapter 24: Words that Comfort; The Aftermath of 9/11 on the NYC Poetry Slam Community" . in the chapter which dealt with the poetry slam community's response to 9/11, and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies such as ''Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe'',''Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe'' Holt. . ''Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry'',''Short Fuse'' Rattapallax Press. . and ''Heights of the Marvelous: A New York Anthology'',''Heights of the Marvelous'' St. Martin's Press. . among many others.

Other performances

Besides performing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Torres has performed at the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

, amongst other venues.

Written works

Torres' poems include: *"''15 Minutes''"; *"''Gigabyte Me - How Much Ram In Your Summer Of Love?''"; *"''Lessering In Lessage''"; *"''Lounging In The Age Of Aquarius''"; *"''Mirror-Fucation''"; *"''Mister Hay's Trippy Moebius''"; *"''Peesacho''"; * "''Terra Quad''" Torres' books include: ''* ''Ameriscopia'' * ''One Night: Poems for the Sleepy'' * ''Yes Thing No Thing'' * ''In the Function of External Circumstances'' * ''The PoPedology of an Ambient Language'' * ''Please'' * ''Onomalingua: noise songs and poetry'' * ''The All-Union Day of the Shock Worker'' * ''Fractured Humorous'' * ''Lung Poetry'' (chapbook) * ''I Hear Things People Haven't Really Said'' (chapbook) * ''SandHomméNomadNo'' (chapbook)

References

External links