The Ironbound section of Newark has a storied past and vibrant present, dominated by its Portuguese and Lusophone community, yet home to people from around the world. Rutgers University–Newark has maintained a close connection to this immigrant neighborhood, located just down Market Street from campus.
On Monday, those strong ties will be on display once again with “Writing Newark in Different Tongues: A Bilingual Poetry Reading with Portuguese-American Ironbound Authors.”
The event features two mainstays of the Newark writing scene: João S Martins, a member of the Portuguese Writers Society and founder of ProVerbo, a cultural arm of the Portuguese Sport Club of Newark, and RU-N alumnus Hugo dos Santos, a Luso-American writer, translator and journalist who was a recipient of the prestigious Disquiet International Scholarship in 2014.
The 61-year-old Martins—who was born and raised in Manteigas, Portugal, earned his degree at the Catholic University of Lisbon, and taught at public schools there—will read from his new published volume of poems, "Ferry Street: Rua da Palavra (Ferry Street, Street of Words)."
Santos, 35, was born in Lisbon and moved with his family to the Ironbound at age 10. A graduate of Newark’s East Side High School who received his M.A. in English from RU-N in 2007, he will read from his poetry collection “Ironbound: A Blog.”
“These two writers present an interesting contrast because of their difference in age and proximity to the immigrant experience,” says Professor Kimberly DaCosta Holton, of RU-N’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, who helped organize the reading. “Both are excellent writers who have crafted collections of poems about the Ironbound that take you on a journey, but without romanticizing the neighborhood, which I think readers will find fascinating.”
In “Ferry Street,” Martins immerses readers into the sights, sounds and lyricism of the Ironbound as he explores familiar landmarks on that main artery. His poems speak to a well-documented demographic shift, as new ethnic groups move in and merge with the Portuguese community. The stanzas do so not from a nostalgic place of loss or sadness but by celebrating the ephemeral nature of the relationship between people and places.
The collection, which sets the poems side by side in Portuguese and English, gets an additional boost from Martins’ collaboration with guitarist José Luis Iglesias and illustrator Fernando Silva. The latter’s vibrant, multicolored images dot the volume luminously, while the poem’s various linguistic rhythms borrow from mariachi, merenge, hip-hop and a host of other musical forms inspired by Iglesias.
The trio have performed the works at Ironbound venues, combining all three elements: the poems read to Silva’s music, with Iglesias’ illustrations on display to complement the recitation.
In "Ironbound: A Blog,” Santos peppers his mostly English verses with Portuguese phrases, while weaving a series of interrelated, sequential poems that follow the story of the narrator, his girlfriend and the Ironbound. Sometimes the Ironbound is the lover, and at other times it is the background for love.
Like Martins, Santos includes neighborhood landmarks in his poems,
“Hugo has a beautiful poem about how Market and Wilson Streets loop away and toward each other,” says Holton. “He uses an extended metaphor about the roots of these streets and compares them to the vicissitudes of love—how people leave and come back. He’s literally mapping a love affair onto the city streets, which readers have really responded to.”
Santos, whose work has appeared in various publications in the U.S., Portugal and the U.K., read at the 2014 Dodge Poetry Festival at NJPAC and is currently working on his first novel, Brick City, set in Newark.
“This event promises to be wonderful,” says Holton. “These writers have been intimately tied to us in various ways. They’re living proof that RU-N has a vibrant link to the Portuguese-speaking community down the street from this campus.”
“Writing Newark in Different Tongues” will take place on Monday October 26, 2015, 2:30-4pm, at the Dana Room, fourth floor of Dana Library. The event is open to the public, and refreshments will be served. It is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, the Center for Migration and the Global City, and the Latino Studies Working Group.
