Flesh and Spirit

Felipe Luciano is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, news anchor, and former adjunct professor at Fordham University. He is the co-founder and chairman of the Young Lords Party, a member of The Original Last Poets, an advocate for inter-ethnic communication, and the host of "Latin Roots," a Latino music program in New York City. A talented diversity speaker, Luciano is committed to community empowerment, ethnic pride, and civil rights. He is a regular contributor to many New York-area newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and Essence. His poetry has appeared in anthologies such as Puerto Rican Poetry: An Anthology from Aboriginal to Contemporary Time.

Preface ix 1 Know Thy Codes 1 2 A Tale of Two Beatings 10 3 Confronting Demons 19 4 Living under the Sign of Death 27 5 Prison Pedagogy 34 6 Every Block Has a Story 45 7 Crossing the Lines 53 8 Culture Shock 84 9 East Wind and The Last Poets 97 "Jibaro, My Pretty Nigger" (Poem) 119 10 The Battle of the Brooms and the Founding of the Young Lords 121 11 First People's Church 150 12 Brothers- in-Arms: The Miracle of Puerto Rican Love 168 13 Dope Fiends and Discipline in the Young Lords Party 177 14 Occupying Lincoln Hospital 185 15 My Last Dance with the Party 201 16 Revolutionary Machismo? 229 17 Art Must Be Honest, or It Is DOA 265 18 From the Taino Peoples to the Young Lords 273 Coda: A Voice for Our People 281 Acknowledgments 283 Index 289

Felipe Luciano's memoir hails from his iconic status in New York City's Puerto Rican culture, history, and politics. His writing is searing, poetic, insightful, magnificent, and unforgettable. This work promises to become a classic, conveying both his personal journey and the story of the Young Lords as only he could.---Gary Dorrien, author of A Darkly Radiant Vision: The Black Social Gospel in the Shadow of MLK Felipe Luciano in Flesh and Spirit, offers an honest, captivating and critical account of The Young Lord's Party in NYC, as well as his own life story. Luciano's writing is both poetic and compelling as he weaves the reader through his life--a riveting account situated on the equally captivating foreground of the historical happenings of the Young Lord's Party. Luciano furnishes a fresh and detailed view of the very consequential history of the Young Lords, who carved significant inroads of often militant advocacy and public awareness regarding the needs of a growing Puerto Rican community during the 1960's and 1970's in NYC. A picture of the moral, spiritual, cultural and political struggles of Felipe Luciano himself, who is undoubtedly one of the most important social justice figures in the Puerto Rican community in NYC is provided. His impact as an Afro-Puerto Rican extends beyond the Puerto Rican community in NYC, to many marginalized groups from the Global South in New York and many other parts of the US. Flesh and Spirit is a great read for those simply seeking a compelling biographical and historical exposition. However, it is a must read for mainland and diasporic Puerto Ricans, as well as for those interested in the cultural and political history of NYC.---Samuel Cruz is Associate Professor of Religion and Society at Union Theological Seminary-NYC and author of Masked Africanisms: Puerto Rican Pentecostalism and Christianity and Culture: A Post-Colonial Approach Felipe Luicano's writing is a powerful and poetic soul scream from a man who is not supposed to be here. No, not this poor smart-assed, rapid-tongued Black Puerto Rican kid hurtling through a survival gauntlet of gangs, police brutality, prison and a U.S. Government that wanted him dead. And yet, this Poet, Armed Revolutionary Leader, Composer, Musicologist, Award-winning Journalist lives on with powerful relevance in the world and on the brilliant, searing pages of Flesh and Spirit.---Jamal Joseph, Professor of Professional Practice in Film, Columbia University; Black Panther Party New York 21