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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.314.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
Puerto Rican Poetry Event
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.314.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Puerto Rican Poetry Event

Subject
Subject
DateDecember 2013
MediumBorn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.314.1-.19
DescriptionPhotographs from an event on Puerto Rican poetry traditions held at the Park Branch of the Hartford Public Library in December 2013.

(.1-.6) Marta Soledad and a guest poet give instruction in decimas and pie forzado. (.5) shows Librarian Leticia Cotto on left.

(.7) MC for the music event at The Studio.

(.8) Marta Soledad is singing with musicians at the music event at The Studio.

(.9-.18) Poets are performing with musicians at the music event at The Studio.

(.19) A woman poet is performing. Leticia Cotto is on the right.
NotesSubject Note: In December 2013, Leticia Cotto, Director of the Park St. Branch of the Hartford Public Library, organized a series of events on Puerto Rican poetry traditions. At the Library, poet and singer Marta Soledad and a guest poet instructed participants in the process of creating poetry with the “Pié Forzado” (or Forsao) method, whereby a poet is given a line (pié forzado or “forced foot”) and then not only composes the rest of the poem extemporaneously, but creates the composition in the form of a décima, a strictly organized 10-line stanza set to a song that generally consists of forty-four lines (an introductory four-line stanza followed by four ten-line stanzas). This form of Puerto Rican poetry is used in Concurso de Trovadores contests. Concursos were held in Hartford in the 1990s under the guidance of poet and musician Virgilio Cruz, the founder of La Primera Orquesta de Hartford, an academy for musicians to learn cuatro, other instruments, and Puerto Rican music and poetry traditions. CCHAP and musician Alfred Rivera presented a Concurso de Trovadores in 2003.

The instruction was followed a week later with “Noche de Trovadores” - a concert held at The Studio performance space at Billings Forge on Broad St. in Hartford, with a group of musicians providing appropriate accompaniment to the poets who would each come up to perform décimas from a Pié Forzado that was shouted out from the audience. The concert was organized by La Sociedad Puertorriqueña of New Britain and musicians included cuatrista Alfred Rivera.


Biographical Note: Leticia Cotto was born and raised in the north end of Hartford. Out of the need for cultural expression of the Puerto Rican diaspora in Hartford, she, along with her five siblings, co-founded La Paloma Sabanera Coffee House and Bookstore (2004), a bookstore that specialized in the sale of Spanish language books by and about Latino authors and themes and fair trade coffee from Central and South America. She is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who became part of the growing number of Puerto Ricans in the early 60's who came to this city in search of a better life. The values of hard work, family, faith, and justice that her parents brought with them, contributed to how she views community engagement and work. Leticia was the director of the Park Street Branch of the Hartford Public Library for many years, and then became the Community Engagement Manager at Hartford Public Library.


Biographical Note: Marta Soledad is a poet, composer, singer, and artist who performs often in the Greater Hartford area.


Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this event and these artists.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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