Flesh and Spirit
Confessions of a Young Lord
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WINNER, AMERICAN BOOK AWARD
Chronicles a Black Puerto Rican man’s odyssey and transformation from an incarcerated gang member to the Co-Founder of the Young Lords Party.
Growing up fatherless and poor, Felipe Luciano didn’t yearn for wealth or dream of becoming a famous actor or athlete. He was tired of being poor and ached to be a man, to reach that point of sagacity, courage, and independence that would signal to the world that he was now a warrior, ready to fight the battle for truth and justice, to slay the dragon of evil, whatever that might be. In Flesh and Spirit, Luciano paints a vivid portrait of his life in New York City as a member of the city’s Latino community as well as his pivotal role in the Young Lords and The Last Poets.
Luciano’s memoir begins when as a teenage Brooklyn gang member he is convicted of manslaughter. This pivotal moment changes the trajectory of his life. The American kid raised on Davy Crockett and Superman TV tales emerged from the womb of prison into a harsh, new monochromatic black/white world without the benefit of rose-colored glasses. It was a painful shattering of all his childhood beliefs and the realization that he was a poor Black Puerto Rican in white America clutching onto values that didn’t work. The only flotsam in this churning sea of ’60s social turmoil was college, poetry, revolutionary activity, and sometimes God. After getting an education, Luciano went on to become an acclaimed poet and political activist who advocates for the Latino population of New York City, for the kids growing up in the same circumstances he did.
Sparing no one—not the revolutionaries, the Revolution, nor the author himself—Flesh and Spirit is written with honesty and humility to help guide young people of color and other Americans through the labyrinths of ideology, organization, missteps, false paths, and phony societal promises.
Featuring archival photographs by Michael Abramson reproduced from Palante: Voices and Photographs of the Young Lords, 1969-1971 © 2011 Haymarket Books.
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
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 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
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
