The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Miguel Algarín was born in 1941 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to a working-class and multicultural family. At an early age, he moved with his family to Manhattan’s Lower East Side in New York, New York. In 1963, Algarín obtained a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin and two years later, a Master’s at Pennsylvania State University. He later obtained a PhD in comparative literature from Rutgers University. 

In the early 1970s, Algarín would gather with diverse poets and artists in his apartment in Manhattan. As a result, he co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Café–where slam poetry was popularized–with Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, and other poets. 

Algarín was a poet, editor, playwright, translator, and English professor at Brooklyn College and New York University. During his time as a professor at Rutgers University, he taught creative writing, ethnic literature, and Shakespeare. Some of his literary works include Survival Supervivencia (Arte Público Press, 2009), Love Is Hard Work: Memorias de Loisaida (Scribner, 1997), Time’s Now/Ya Es Tiempo (Arte Público Press, 1985), Body Bee Calling from the 21st Century (Arte Público Press, 1982), Mongo Affair: Poems (Nuyorican Poet's Café, 1978), Spread Your Cheeks (Nuyorican Press, 1975) and Realidades (Nuyorican Press,1970). He also translated the book Song of Protest by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and co-edited, Action: The Nuyorican Poets Café Theater Festival (Touchstone, 1997), Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café (Holt Paperbacks,1994), and Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings (Morrow, 1975).

Algarín received four American Book Awards. In 2009, he was the first Latino to be awarded  the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he also received the Larry Leon Hamlin Producer's Award at the  National Black Theater Festival.

He died in 2020 in Manhattan.

Works Cited

del Barco, Mandalit. “Miguel Algarin, Force Behind New York's Beloved Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Dies At 79.” NPR, 4 Dec. 2020,  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/arts/miguel-algarin-dead.html https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/942777469/miguel-algarin-force-behind-new-yorks-beloved-nuyorican-poets-cafe-dies-at-79 .

Genzlinger, Neil. “Miguel Algarín, Force Behind Nuyorican Cafe, Dies at 79.” The New York Times, 3 Dec. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/arts/miguel-algarin-dead.html.

Mercado, Nancy. “A Biography of Miguel Algarin.” A Gathering of the Tribes, https://www.tribes.org/biography-of-miguel

“Miguel Algarín.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/miguel-algarin.

“Miguel Algarín.”  Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/miguel-algarin.