VOA慢速英语 THIS IS AMERICA - The Spoken Word is Still Heard Aft

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:
　
2008 Nuyorican National Slam Team

And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we go to New York City to visit the thirty-five year old Nuyorican Poet's Café on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

(Poem)

READER:

I search the chemistry of specific emotions,

a combination of earth and air

that evokes¹ the vital detail,

the phrase that heats the frying pan,

the look that smiles,

offering signals that localize,

where I am, and clarify what I see.

I'm child of the Electronic Frontier.

I learn off the radio waves

of 98.7 Kiss F.M. salsa/disco jams,

that come from a Sony,

bought even though I need a coat,

even though I'm behind on my payments

for the Trinitron Remote Control Color T.V.

that I picked up at Crazy Eddie's last month.

I'm child of the Columbia Space Shuttle,

and I need to know all the electronic gimmicks²

invented yesterday

that are already primitive³ cousins

to those developed today

from eight to five P.M. in Japan.

VOICE ONE:
　
Miguel Algarin

That poem, "Electronic Frontier," was written by Miguel Algarin. The native of Puerto Rico is a founder⁴ of one of New York City's oldest poetry centers -- The Nuyorican Poets Café. Nuyorican is a mix of the words "New York" and "Puerto Rican." It describes Puerto Ricans in America, whether they are in New York or not. The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit arts organization in Manhattan.

Miguel Algarin is sitting in his special seat at the end of the bar in the Café. He has a deep warm voice. He appears exactly as a poet should -- dreamy and intellectual, emotional and distant, humorous and dark.

VOICE TWO:

The Nuyorican Poets Café is in the Loisaida neighborhood of Manhattan. Its borders are debated. Generally, however, they stretch from Fourteenth Street on the north side, Avenue A on the west, Houston on the south and the East River. Loisaida is a "Spanglish" term, or English with a Spanish sound. Loisaida means "Lower East Side." The area is also known as Alphabet City, and sometimes considered part of the East Village.

Historically, the Lower East Side has been home to poor immigrant populations. The area has seen German, Jewish, Polish, Italian and Irish populations come and go. In the forties, Puerto Ricans arrived. And this group stayed.

Loisaida was one of New York's most dangerous neighborhoods in the nineteen seventies and eighties. It was filled with illegal drug sellers and users. The drug trade led to other crimes including stealing and violence. The crime became so bad in Loisaida that its lettered avenues got nicknames. Avenue "A" was for assault, "B" was for battery, "C" was for coma⁵ and "D" was for death.

VOICE ONE:

Loisaida was poor and dangerous. But the neighborhood was also home to undiscovered poets, playwrights⁶, and musicians. These included Miguel Pinero, writer of the award-winning Broadway play "Short Eyes." He abused drugs and was jailed for robbery by the time he was a teenager. His work speaks to the short, hard life he lived. Mister Pinero died of alcohol-related disease in nineteen eighty-eight at the age of forty-one. He was a co-founder of the Nuyorican.

The Reverend Pedro Pietri was another. A former soldier in the United States Army, the Puerto Rican native wrote protest poems and plays about civil rights issues in America. His work and his performances were always exciting. He wore clothes of a Christian⁷ clergy⁸ member and called himself "Reverend." He died of cancer at the age of fifty-nine.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen seventy three, Miguel Algarin opened up his apartment to these men and other artists. They would gather to read their work and discuss social issues. His home became very crowded quickly. And there was another problem.

Miguel Algarin was working as a professor of English at Rutgers University in New Jersey⁹. "The thing about poets," he says, "is they like to stay up and talk until about four in the morning. Well, that is when I would be getting up to get ready for class." He says he realized it was time to find a separate space where the poets could gather and he could still get some sleep.
　
Reverend Pedro Pietri helped found the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe.

At first, the Nuyorican moved to a rented space on Sixth Street in Loisaida. Then Miguel Algarin and the others were offered a nearby building on Third Street between Avenues B and C. Ellen Stewart, an experimental theater founder, owned the building.

This local arts supporter saw the promise the Café held for new poets. So, she sold the building for only one dollar. The Nuyorican Poets Café remains¹⁰ at Two Thirty-Six East Third Street today. However, in two thousand six, New York City officials renamed Third Street in Loisaida "Reverend Pedro Pietri Way."

(MUSIC)

ROLAND LEGIARDI-LAURA:

"The mission of the Café has always been to support and nurture¹¹ the arts of the spoken word. So poetry, plays, screenplay readings, and we've expanded to music and visual arts. Our deepest concern is to serve the underserved communities; the people who don't normally get access to arts in the city. Poor people, youth, people of color, so we try to keep our prices very, very low. We try to speak to those communities and provide them with artistic¹² experiences that they can relate to."

VOICE ONE:

That is Roland Legiardi-Laura, a poet, filmmaker and member of the Café's board of directors. And he leads many of the Café's educational projects.

One of those he is especially proud of is the Nuyorican Power Writers Program. The year-long program involves at-risk children in troubled New York City schools. Mister Legiardi-Laura, poet and writer Joe Ubiles and arts education expert Amy Sultan founded the program in two thousand one.

The program aims to empower young people by making them masters of language and reading. The Power Writers' motto is: "If you don't learn how to write your own life story, someone else will write it for you." Roland LeGiardi-Laura says life feels out of control for a lot of the children he works with. He says the program can help them take control, make changes and imagine a future. They can become "warriors¹³ of words."

VOICE TWO:

Mister LeGiardi-Laura's first Power Writers class was in the Bronx area of New York City. He opened it by telling the children: "The prisons in our country […] are filled with people who can't read or write or speak well. In fact, this is the single most common distinguishing characteristic of an American prisoner -- illiteracy¹⁴. Not race, not economic background, not an abusive childhood. If you want to have power in this society you must master the three literacies […] this is a class about power, your power."

The Power Writers program is the subject of "To Be Heard," a film that will be released soon. It was paid for by the public television network.

VOICE ONE:
　
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Currently, the Nuyorican Poets Café is best known for its poetry slams. They are held Wednesday and Friday nights. Poetry slams are competitions where poets perform their poems in front of an audience and judges. The poems can be no longer than three minutes and are rated from zero to ten, ten being the best score possible.

Former Nuyorican board member Bob Holman brought slam to the Café from Chicago, Illinois, where it was born. The first slam at the Nuyorican was held in nineteen eighty-nine.

VOICE TWO:

At a slam earlier this month, one poet performed a piece about a girl with a very troubled mother. Here is part of it.

"I used to try on Mommy's jeans, just to see how they'd fit on me. They were always too big for me, but I knew in my heart, that it was Mommy's jeans that help me be the best Mommy that I could be.

But now, Mommy wears my jeans, adorned¹⁵ with glitter belts and shirts that say hottie and sexy. You see, my Mother's not a hottie nor is she sexy. She's more than that. She's beautiful.

I just don't think anyone's ever told her so. She's cocoa brown with the red undertones. She's got the night sky in her eyes, but she wears glitter shirts so she can shine. Not knowing that she's got the shine of the stars and moon in her eyes. Fire on her lips, Cherokee in her blood and Zulu in her hips¹⁶, she's a Goddess, who has never been told."

VOICE ONE:

The Café also has hip-hop poetry and music events, poetry readings and theatrical¹⁷ productions. And Executive Director Dan Gallant¹⁸ says there is room for expansion. The Nuyorican Poets Café is in a three- level building. Mister Gallant says the two top floors could be turned into rooms for workshops or studios or more performance space.

All in time, he says. Mister Gallant notes that the Nuyorican is very lucky as a non-profit organization to own its own building, especially in a recession. "We don't have to worry about paying rent," he says. "We still can keep our entrance prices low. We don't depend so much on money from donors¹⁹."

VOICE TWO:

Over the years, Loisaida has changed. It is now a desired place to live. Crime has been reduced. Housing prices have increased.

There are still some public housing apartments for poor people, but many fewer than in the past. Developers have bought a lot of empty properties and have re-built costly²⁰ apartments. There are many popular restaurants and stores in the area.

The Nuyorican Poets Café looks and feels a lot like it did many years ago. But Dan Gallant did get the Café to modernize²¹ one way this past year. "We now accept credit cards," he says proudly.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver²². Our reader was Mario Ritter. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for This is America in VOA Special English.

1 evokes   

产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• Each type evokes antibodies which protect against the homologous. 每一种类型都能产生抗同种病毒的抗体。

2 gimmicks   

n.花招，诡计，骗人的玩意儿( gimmick的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Financial institutions are also often expected yield of gimmicks. 金融机构也往往以预期收益率为噱头。 来自互联网
• However these are just marketing gimmicks that propagate the myth. 然而这些只是噱头的营销传播的神话。 来自互联网

3 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

6 playwrights   

n.剧作家( playwright的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We're studying dramatic texts by sixteenth century playwrights. 我们正在研究16 世纪戏剧作家的戏剧文本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hung-chien asked who the playwrights were. 鸿渐问谁写的剧本。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

12 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

13 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

14 illiteracy   

n.文盲

参考例句：

• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining.从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。
• We must do away with illiteracy.我们必须扫除文盲。

15 adorned   

[计]被修饰的

参考例句：

• The walls were adorned with paintings. 墙上装饰了绘画。
• And his coat was adorned with a flamboyant bunch of flowers. 他的外套上面装饰着一束艳丽刺目的鲜花。

16 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

18 gallant   

adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的

参考例句：

• Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。
• These gallant soldiers will protect our country.这些勇敢的士兵会保卫我们的国家的。

19 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

21 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

22 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。