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Jesús Papoleto Meléndez ("Papo") (June 13, 1950) is a New York-born Puerto Rican (Nuyorican) poet, playwright, teacher and activist.

Early years
Affectionately known as "Papo," he was born and raised in El Barrio (also known as “East Harlem” or “Spanish Harlem,” located in the upper east side of Manhattan), of Puerto Rican parents who migrated to the mainland in search of a better life for their family. Growing up with three sisters and one brother, Papo, the middle kid in the family, acquired a penchant for looking at things from a different perspective. Attending the public schools of his neighborhood, Papo became interested in writing at a young age, and participated in his first poetry reading when he was 19 years old.

The Nuyorican Movement
The Nuyorican Movement evolved during the 1960s involved activists, teachers, poets, writers, musicians and artists of Puerto Rican descent, who were either born in the city or had moved there when they were very young. Reflecting the complex nature of the Puerto Rican diaspora, “Nuyorican” has been popularized not only as a cultural term for Puerto Ricans living in New York City, but also for Puerto Ricans living throughout the United States. Headquartered more or less, out of El Barrio, one of the hardest hit areas during the 1960s and 1970s as New York City struggled with deficits, race riots, urban flight, drug abuse, crime and poverty. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Puerto Ricans began to become more assertive in proclaiming and taking pride in their own cultural identity. By 1969, a regional chapter of the Young Lords (which was reorganized from a neighborhood street gang in Chicago), coalesced with the Black Panthers and called for Puerto Rican self-determination and neighborhood empowerment.

It was also during this time that a purely “Nuyorican” literature developed, which employed innovative narrative forms, language and themes that appeared in their creative works. This literature would become distinct in that it uses the words of everyday speech among Puerto Ricans in New York, of what is popularly known as “Spanglish” but can be more aptly described as “code-switching,” which is the back and forth shift between English and Spanish within a framework that is predominately English. In psychological terms, it is the obsession of maintaining an identity with two islands: Manhattan and Puerto Rico. It was these and other events that would help shape Papo’s writing and the oral delivery of his work.

Writing Career
Papo emerged on the New York City scene at the right place at the right time. During the 1970s, he worked as a teacher-poet for Teachers & Writers Collaborative, a then relatively new organization founded by a group of writers and educators who believed that writers could make a unique contribution to the teaching of writing. Fervently publishing and performing his works, he also became one of the founders of the “Nuyorican” movement. With the publication of his poem, “Message To Urban Sightseers” in Talkin’ About Us (NY, 1969), and his first volumes of poetry, Casting Long Shadows (NY, 1970), Have You Seen Liberation (NY, 1971), and Street Poetry & Other Poems (Barlenmir House, NY 1972), it firmly established Papo as a poet and one of the founders of the Nuyorican movement. His play, “The Junkies Stole The Clock,” was the first production of the New York Shakespeare Festival The Public Theatre’s Nuyorican Playwright’s Unit in April, 1974.

By 1980, disillusioned by the politics of the city, Papo left [New York] for the “greener pastures” of California where he continued to write, perform, teach and eventually published the poetry collection, Concertos On Market Street in 1993, merging his Nuyorican melodies with a Southern California sensibility. When he returned to New York in the mid-1990s, Papo engaged in a poetry that sang to a struggling people. He had not wavered in his ideals, yet he sought to write in ways that would allow him to define not only his own values, but also his creative imagination. As a performance-poet, Papo has distinguished himself as a dynamic presenter of his works in the oral tradition. His poetry seems to “jump from the page” in its written form, stylized in a technique of word-visualization that Papo often refers to as “Cascadance,” where oral presentation becomes a melodic processional sound of syllables, which personify the words’ images and feelings.

Other Works
Papo’s works have appeared in numerous anthologies, notably: The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and Their Affiliates (2008), edited by Louis Reyes Rivera and [Bruce George]; In the Arms of Words: Poems for Disaster Relief (2005), edited by Amy Ouzoonian; Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (2001), edited by Tony Medina and Louis Reyes Rivera; In Defense of Mumia (1996), edited by S. E. Anderson and Tony Medina, and Unsettling America (1994), edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan. He has also published in the literary journals: phati’tude Literary Magazine, A Gathering of the Tribes, and LongShot. His play, “The Junkies Stole The Clock,” was again produced in 1997 and directed by Veronica Caicedo at the Clemente Soto Vega Cultural Center in New York City.

Teaching Career
A poetry-facilitator working in the public schools, Papo’s career spans over 30-years, during which time he has coordinated many successful “Poetry/Creative Writing” workshops, affecting the lives of thousands of young people. He has developed a unique program that offers cross-curriculum creative writing experiences, emphasizing poetic form and expression, while merging computer desktop publishing techniques and technology in the classroom. Having taught for the San Diego City Schools district through the California Poets In The Schools program, when he returned to New York he taught for WritersCorps and Teachers & Writers Collaborative, ironically where his teaching career began some thirty years ago. He has worked with Union Settlement Association, Adult Education Program, working in the East Harlem community he loves as he continues his unique workshop curriculum that offers creative writing and publishing experiences for his students.

Honors, Awards
Papo is a recipient of The Louis Reyes Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award (2004); a 2001 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry; an Artist for Community Enrichment Award (ACE) from the Bronx Council on the Arts (1995); and a Combo (Combined Arts of San Diego) NEA Fellowship in Literature (1988).

Current Projects
Papo's forthcoming book is Hey Yo / Yo Soy!, 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry, The collected works of Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, VOLUME NO. 1 (2Leaf Press) in November 2012. This 40th anniversary collection consists of the poetry collections Casting Long Shadows, Have You Seen Liberation, and Street Poetry & Other Poems, with Spanish translations by Adam Wier, Marjorie Gonzalez and Carolina Fung Feng. The introduction is by Sandra Maria Esteves with an afterword by Shaggy Flores.

Further Reading & Videos

 * Select Poems by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, http://www.virtualboricua.org/Docs/poems_jpm.htm
 * Jesus Papoleto Melendez remembers Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri's final moments in an air ambulance from Tijuana in 2004, http://www.prx.org/pieces/2984-storycorps-jesus-papoleto-melendez