Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
JESÚS PAPOLETO MELÉNDEZ (“Papo”) is an award-winning New York-born Puerto Rican poet who is recognized as one of the founders of the Nuyorican Movement. He is also a playwright, teacher and activist.
Affectionately known as “Papo,” he published his first poem, “Message To Urban Sightseers” in Talkin’ About Us (1969). The publication of his earliest volumes of poetry, Casting Long Shadows (1970), Have You Seen Liberation (1971), and Street Poetry & Other Poems (1972), firmly established Papo as a prominent poet in the Nuyorican community.
Beginning in the 1970s, Meléndez began his 30-year career as a poet-facilitator in the public schools, working at workshop programs in California and New York. In 1993, he published the poetry collection, Concertos On Market Street, merging his Nuyorican melodies with a Southern California sensibility.
Over the years, Meléndez has performed his poetry with musical groups in California, Tijuana, México and New York, and has opened for such artists as Tito Puente, Urban Bush Women and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. His works have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and is often cited in textbooks. Meléndez' work has been widely anthologized, most notably in The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2011); In the Arms of Words: Poems for Tsunami Relief ( 2005); Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (2001); Literature and Integrated Studies – Forms of Literature (1997); In Defense of Mumia (1996); Paper Dance (1995); Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (1994); La Linea Quebrada – The Broken Line (1987); Hojas, Revista de Talleres Literatura (1986); Peace is our profession: Poems and passages of war protest (1981); Herejes Y Mitificadores: Muestra De Poesia Puertorriquena En Los Estados Unido (1980); and Puertoricaner In New York (1979).
Meléndez is is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Union Settlement Association “Innovation Award” (2011), received The Universes Poetic Ensemble Company Award in “Appreciation of Inspiration & Commitment to the Development of the Company” (2006); The 1st Annual El Reverendo Pedro Pietri Hand Award in Poetry, El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico, El Puerto Rican Embassy (2006); The Louis Reyes Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award, Amherst College (2004); a NYFA Poetry Fellow (New York Foundation for the Arts, 2001), and received an Artist for Community Enrichment (ACE) Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts (1995). Now an elder statesman of the Nuyorican poetry scene, Meléndez has become a mentor for emerging poets and writers that follow in the Nuyorican tradition.
