A suite of poems about a percussionist in 1970 Spanish Harlem music circles, from the author of The Crazy Bunch A National Book Critics Circle 2014 Finalist for Poetry Through dream song and elegy, alternate takes and tempos, prizewinning poet Willie Perdomo’s third collection crackles with vitality and dynamism as it imagines the life of a percussionist, rebuilding the landscape of his apprenticeship, love, diaspora, and death. At the beginning of his infernal journey, Shorty Bon Bon recalls his live studio recording with a classic 1970s descarga band, sharing his recollection with an unidentified poet. This opening section is followed by a call-and-response with his greatest love, a singer named Rose, and a visit to Puerto Rico that inhabits a surreal nationalistic dreamscape, before a final jam session where Shorty recognizes his end and a trio of voices seek to converge on his elegy.

The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon: Poems (Penguin Poets)

Literature & Fiction

Perdomo, Willie

United States

Penguin Publishing Group

From a prize-winning poet, a new collection that chronicles a weekend in the life of a group of friends coming of age in East Harlem at the dawn of the hip-hop era Willie Perdomo, a native of East Harlem, has won praise as a hip, playful, historically engaged poet whose restlessly lyrical language mixes "city life with a sense of the transcendent" (NPR.org). In his fourth collection, The Crazy Bunch, Perdomo returns to his beloved neighborhood to create a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a "crew" coming of age in East Harlem at the beginning of the 1990s. In poems written in couplets, vignettes, sketches, riffs, and dialogue, Perdomo recreates a weekend where surviving members of the crew recall a series of tragic events: "That was the summer we all tried to fly. All but one of us succeeded."

The Crazy Bunch (Penguin Poets)

Penguin??Books

A first book of poems by one of the best new voices to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Where a Nickel Costs a Dime captures the hip-hop rhythms and in-your-face intensity of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a downtown Manhattan club where the hottest young poets are finding their fame. Willie Perdomo's poems, in the tradition of Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, and Ntozake Shange, meet at the intersection of the street and the academy. The world in these piercing and heartbreaking poems is Spanish Harlem, "where night turns to day without sleep," where "Puerto Rico stays on our minds when the fresh breeze of cafe con leche y pan con mantequilla comes through half-opened windows and under our doors," where "babies fall asleep to the bark of a German shepherd," where "Independence Day is celebrated everyday," where "the police come into your house without knocking. They throw us off rooftops and say we slipped. They shoot my father and say he was crazy. They put a bullet in my head and say they found me that way." Blending images of street life, drugs, and AIDS against hope and determination, Willie Perdomo is a cutting-edge bard who speaks to the soul of his generation. .

Where a Nickel Costs a Dime: Poems

Poetry

W.W.Norton&Company

Where A Nickel Costs A Dime (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Turtleback

A wonderful picture book introduction to a legendary American writer It's a special day when a little girl and her father go to visit the house where the great poet Langston Hughes lived--especially when the little girl is a poet herself! This rhythmic tale is a wonderful introduction to the work and world of Langston Hughes, who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and an American cultural hero.

Visiting Langston

Children's Books

Turtleback Books

A wonderful picture book introduction to a legendary American writer
 It's a special day when a little girl and her father go to visit the house where the great poet Langston Hughes lived―especially when the little girl is a poet herself!
 This rhythmic tale is a wonderful introduction to the work and world of Langston Hughes, who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and an American cultural hero.

Biographies

Square Fish

A little boy named Clemente learns about his namesake, the great baseball player Roberto Clemente, in this joyful picture book biography. Born in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the only player for whom the five-year initiation period was waived. Known not only for his exceptional baseball skills but also for his extensive charity work in Latin America, Clemente was well-loved during his eighteen years playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died in a plane crash while bringing aid supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Willie Perdomo's rhythmic text and Bryan Collier's energetic art combine to tell the amazing story of one of baseball's greats.
Clemente! is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Clemente!

Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

A little boy named Clemente learns about his namesake, the great baseball player Roberto Clemente, in this joyful picture book biography. 
Born in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the only player for whom the five-year initiation period was waived. Known not only for his exceptional baseball skills but also for his extensive charity work in Latin America, Clemente was well-loved during his 18 years playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died in a plane crash while bringing aid supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Willie Perdomo's rhythmic text and Bryan Collier's energetic art combine to tell the story of one of baseball's greats.

A poem to celebrate the African American poet, Langston Hughes, born on February 1, 1902

Visiting Langston (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Smoking Lovely: The Remix (Break Beat Poets)

Smoking Lovely's explorations of poetry and the neoliberal city at the intersection of community and commodity. In this radically revised new edition, Perdomo shifts the poem into mostly second person, thereby further accentuating its self-reflexive and complex exploration of self-and/as-other, and of the simultaneous othering, commodification, and spectacularization of Afro-diasporic bodies and cultural forms.

Haymarket Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perdomo, Willie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Perdomo, Willie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perdomo, Willie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon: Poems (Penguin Poets)

The Crazy Bunch (Penguin Poets)

Where a Nickel Costs a Dime: Poems

Where A Nickel Costs A Dime (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Visiting Langston

Visiting Langston

Clemente!

Clemente!

Visiting Langston (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Smoking Lovely: The Remix (Break Beat Poets)