Felipe Luciano

Felipe Luciano

Felipe Luciano (born c. 1947 in East Harlem, New York City, New York,) is an American poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. He is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage. His most famous poem is titled Jíbaro, My Pretty N***** (asterisks for internet appropriateness), and is considered an eloquent discussion of the experience of Afro-Puerto Rican identity. Luciano served time in prison for manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn teenager in the early 1960s. Following his release, he attended Queens College and became a member of the Original Last Poets (with Gylan Kain and David Nelson).He and five other members co-founded a New York branch of the Young Lords (later this group changed its name to Young Lords Party). Their local legal counsel was a young Jerry Rivers (now known as Geraldo Rivera) and served as its chair. The original Young Lords as a movement began in Chicago and spread nationally. It was founded by Jose Cha Cha Jimenez who transformed the original group from a gang. It developed politically because the Puerto Rican community in Chicago was being gentrified and families were being displaced. The Young Lords Party in NYC was a branch which sprouted from within the Young Lords Movement.The New York branch was formed primarily as a student political movement. It later coalesced with several other New York branches of the national Young Lords to form a New York Regional Chapter.Luciano later became a radio, television, and print journalist, and became President of Luciano Productions, Inc.

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