Poet Noel Quiñones on exploring his roots and supporting Bronx artists

Lyka Sethi
Coconuts
Published in
16 min readMay 28, 2019

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There is certainly no shortage of ambitious, passionate and energized New Yorkers, but it’s rare to encounter someone who directs as much of their time and energy toward making a positive impact as Bronx native Noel Quiñones. Equal parts award-winning spoken word artist and local activist, Noel’s work is fueled by a connection to his home borough and an exploration of his Afro-Boricua heritage.

When I say Puerto Rico I mean an opening in the skin
where gold turns green under my scalp.
This type of call is very common,
María, like a buzzsaw, shaving off the top of the island

Noel’s words elicit a visceral feeling in the listener, the reader. He writes and emotes with a tenderness and a candor that work in harmony to convey deliberate messages and themes. His poetry covers a spectrum of topics, including Puerto Rico’s fraught history and ongoing plight; growing up with divorced parents; the nuances of his cultural identity; and “punk rock, comic books, joyful things.” He contains multitudes.

When I met with Noel most recently at a midtown Gregory’s Coffee, he was in the midst of a hectic week balancing his day job as a high school administrator at Brooklyn Friends School, planning events for the Bronx-based arts organization he founded called Project ‘X’, and continuing to…

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Lyka Sethi
Coconuts

Tired in Los Angeles. (Previously: Berkeley, NYC and Mainz, Germany)