LINA PALLOTTA
REUNITES
BOB HOLMAN, JANICE ERLBAUM, AND EDWIN TORRES
Free, RSVP required
REUNITES
BOB HOLMAN, JANICE ERLBAUM, AND EDWIN TORRES
Free, RSVP required
Thursday,
December 18, 2025
6:30
Doors
7pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
December 18, 2025
6:30
Doors
7pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
The Italian artist Lina Pallotta spent much of the 1990s in New York. She spent most nights in the city’s underground poetry clubs, witnessing the emergence of new forms of performance of spoken word—“slam” poetry. She went to Nuyorican Poets Café, St. Mark’s Church, Fez Café, the Bowery Poetry Club, and others.
On Wednesday and Friday nights, the Nuyorican provided a stage for artists traditionally under-represented in mainstream media and culture and was the cradle of the weekly Poetry Slams Competitions. The poet Bob Holman, the Nuyorican slam-master and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club, once called these events “the democratization of verse.”
What emerged from these performances was a new group of so-called Nuyorican poets—Willie Perdomo, Sapphire, Maggie Estep, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Reg. E. Gaines, Paul Beatty, Edwin Torres, Emanuel Xavier, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Ntozake Shange, Zoraida Santiago, and Keven Powell, Cheryl B., among others.
On Wednesday and Friday nights, the Nuyorican provided a stage for artists traditionally under-represented in mainstream media and culture and was the cradle of the weekly Poetry Slams Competitions. The poet Bob Holman, the Nuyorican slam-master and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club, once called these events “the democratization of verse.”
What emerged from these performances was a new group of so-called Nuyorican poets—Willie Perdomo, Sapphire, Maggie Estep, Tracie Morris, Dana Bryant, Reg. E. Gaines, Paul Beatty, Edwin Torres, Emanuel Xavier, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Ntozake Shange, Zoraida Santiago, and Keven Powell, Cheryl B., among others.
Faced with the poetic language that was performed, embodied, and intertwined with music, Lina began to take photographs. These timeless images are brought together in her recent book titled Tongue in Flames (1992—2011), published by Nero Editions.
For this event, Lina hosts a conversation between Bob Holman, Janice Erlbaum, and Edwin Torres, who share their reflections on what it was like back then, and what it’s like now.
The project is supported by Strategia Fotografia 2024, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
For this event, Lina hosts a conversation between Bob Holman, Janice Erlbaum, and Edwin Torres, who share their reflections on what it was like back then, and what it’s like now.
The project is supported by Strategia Fotografia 2024, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Bob Holman. Photo by Lina Pallotta.
Janice Erlbaum. Photo by Lina Pallotta.
Edwin Torres. Photo by Lina Pallotta
Lina Pallotta lives and works in Rome as a photographer and a teacher. She graduated
in “Photojournalism and Documentary” at the International Center of Photography (ICP),
NYC. Over the years she received several grants her works are part of private and
public collections.
Bob Holman first read at the Nuyorican Poets Café in 1978 when it was on 6th St. In 1980, while working for the St. Marks Poetry Project, he created a cross-cultural reading series between the Church and the Café, curated with Miguel Algarín and Lois Griffith. He became a director of the Café when it reopened in 1989, importing the Poetry Slam from Chicago. The Nuyorican Poetry Slam opened the ears of the world to spoken word and the knowledge that Rap is Poetry. We’re talking the Oral Tradition here—it’s not written down, which is why you can’t Google it. But you can see it for yourself in the photos of Lina Pallotta. For the last two years, while the Café undergoes “nuyo-reconstruction,” the Nuyorican Bowery Slam has been happening on Monday nights at the Bowery Poetry Club, which Bob founded in 2002.
in “Photojournalism and Documentary” at the International Center of Photography (ICP),
NYC. Over the years she received several grants her works are part of private and
public collections.
Bob Holman first read at the Nuyorican Poets Café in 1978 when it was on 6th St. In 1980, while working for the St. Marks Poetry Project, he created a cross-cultural reading series between the Church and the Café, curated with Miguel Algarín and Lois Griffith. He became a director of the Café when it reopened in 1989, importing the Poetry Slam from Chicago. The Nuyorican Poetry Slam opened the ears of the world to spoken word and the knowledge that Rap is Poetry. We’re talking the Oral Tradition here—it’s not written down, which is why you can’t Google it. But you can see it for yourself in the photos of Lina Pallotta. For the last two years, while the Café undergoes “nuyo-reconstruction,” the Nuyorican Bowery Slam has been happening on Monday nights at the Bowery Poetry Club, which Bob founded in 2002.
Janice Erlbaum is the author of five books, including GIRLBOMB: A Halfway Homeless Memoir. Her poetry has been featured in places including MTV, McSweeney's, The Best Erotic American Poetry, and Aloud, the Nuyorican Poetry Club's anthology.
Edwin Torres is a NYC native, whose books of poetry include Quanundrum: i will be your many angled thing (Roof Books, American Book Award winner), Xoeteox: the infinite word object (Wave Books), Ameriscopia (University of Arizona Press), and editor of The Body In Language: An Anthology (Counterpath Press). His latest release is an album with sound artist Stephen Vitiello entitled Sublingual Infinities (Room 40 Music).
Edwin Torres is a NYC native, whose books of poetry include Quanundrum: i will be your many angled thing (Roof Books, American Book Award winner), Xoeteox: the infinite word object (Wave Books), Ameriscopia (University of Arizona Press), and editor of The Body In Language: An Anthology (Counterpath Press). His latest release is an album with sound artist Stephen Vitiello entitled Sublingual Infinities (Room 40 Music).
