Nuyorican Block Party

Yesterday I went with some people from my floor to this event called the Nuyorican Block Party. There's a cafe called Nuyorican Poetry Cafe on 3rd street that poetry slams and whatnot all the time, and apparently they have a poetry team that competes in poetry competitions. From what the lady announcing the poets was saying, their team usually does pretty well.

The event wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was really cool to watch. It was outdoors, they'd blocked off the entire block and we were just sitting outside listening to people present their poetry. It was interesting, because all of the poets were African American, and it was really neat to hear their poetry because it was all from their perspectives and was about the struggles they face in day to day life. One guy kept repeating "Excuse me" in his poem that talked about his interactions with various white and black people throughout his daily life. There was one poem I really enjoyed about how we're so dependent on technology. The poet said something like, "I have an iPhone and an iPod and an iPad and an iHome and an iLife and an iMouse that I use on my iComputer". He was basically poking fun at how attached we are to our phones and such but it was pretty entertaining.

The atmosphere of this event was pretty cool too, because it was obviously a lot of families coming out to support the poets. It felt like one of those places where everyone knows everyone and everyone's business. At the same  time, I didn't feel uncomfortable being there, because it was a really warm and welcoming environment. Plus they had free food and really yummy cotton candy, so I was happy about that.

I've also been spending a lot of time with some of the girls in the room next to me. Their names are Alexi, Emily, Caitlin, Natascha, and Jordan. This past weekend Caroline went home Thursday night, Dan-a went home mid-day Saturday, and Jasmine went to a friend's apartment in Jersey Saturday evening, which left me and Karen home alone. Karen went out with some of her friends, so I decided to hang out with the girls next door. We went out into the city and just walked around and explored, which was really fun. We walked past a lot of hole-in-the-wall type restaurants that we want to try out at some point.