All Things Rican...

In the last few months I have immersed myself in a community which I was not fully aware of prior. I've always known I was Puerto Rican, always ate the food and moved to the music, but was never fully aware of where my family came from and what they went through to get here to New York. This newfound curiosity in my roots brought me to attend the premiere of "Yo Soy Boricua, Pa' Que Tu Lo Sepas! (I'm Boricua, Just So You Know!)", directed by the beautiful and authentic Rosie Perez.

I gathered up the Boricua troops, i.e. my crazy friends who have become my frequent tag along team to experience new adventures. Stephen linked up with me after work and we headed down to Pace University on the west side instead of east...why'd we do that again? We end up at the WTC and were about to jump in a cab when I looked east and realized we were right in the vacinity of Pace, would have been a 30 second cab ride and still more than $4.

As we walked down Spruce Street it became obvious that peopole were not playing around with this movie. The film, which would start @ 8:30 (as long as it wasn't running on PR time) already had a line forming outside of it and it was only 7:30. Luckily, I had already purchased tickets for my crew, but that didn't stop a friend of mine who is renowned for waiting until the last minute to call me and ask me if I had an extra ticket. As my other friends began to show up, first Chris and then Clarissa and her crew, I scrambled between my blackberry and my cellphone trying to find out how we'd get extra tickets. Tato, my friend and Yerbabuena band leader, showed up with his beautiful girlfriend Mara and joined us in line. Every five seconds someone one of us knew would stop by our section of the line and we would have mini-reunions. It never ceases to amaze me how "small" this "huge" community is.

Without realizing it an hour had gone by and we were being ushered into the theater. Our entire group was seated together in the front of the balcony and we did what any normal Puerto Rican would do and drapped all our shit over the seats surrounding us in case our other peoples showed up lol. As it typically happens, Monse found his way in with Divine and they joined our section (his ability to undermine any implausible situation still amazes me). We settled down to an introduction to the movie and a round of applause to Rosie who thanked everyone for coming. The lights dimmed and my history began.

What unfolded before me was something beautiful and shocking all at once. I have to put this out there, apparently I didn't know shit about what Puerto Ricans have gone through. I wasn't even on point with who the prominent leaders had been. Am I ashamed of my ignorance? Slightly. But, I'm now focused to learn so much more.  I've surrounded myself with people who are in tune with history and purpose, people like Tato who, I had not known until that moment, starred in the movie and shared relevant and important pieces of information. Much love to Judie who put me onto the movie in the first place, we have a lot of networking to do in the future girl!  I'm hungry to learn more and I've crashed right into a wealth of resources. Unfortunately, I will be away for the next week so I will not be able to view the movie again, but for those of you who wish to be inspired, film information can be found at www.tribecafilmfestival.org. The film will also air on the IFC channel on June 12th.

After the film, Chris, Stephen and I were famished, so we said our goodbyes and headed to the LES where we swore we'd find some decent Spanish food even though it was already 11pm. Circling the avenues from A through D we found nothing and settled for pizza. While Chris is great at balancing pizzas and sodas, his skillz did not divert him from getting sauce on my jeans. HA! Kidding, it's not that serious, I just know it bothered you. Don't worry, I got StainStick! Although tired as shit, Stephen and I took Chris up on his offer to meet up with Fred and join them @ The Frying Pan. Gotta tell you off the bat that Chris is one of the most original people I've ever met, so I knew hanging with him would be something out the ordinary. He didn't let me down.

We arrived at Chelsea Piers near Basketball City and walked onto a pier that was setup as an outdoor club under a tent. House music pumped, no THROBBED, through the wood beneath my feet and I almost fell into a trance. It wasn't the techno house that I can't stand, it was full on drums, congas and jungle beats that had me moving before I even realized I still had the energy. Right then and there I was ready to move as if I knew what I was doing, but then I got shy. I always get shy. "Come on, Elle! I see it in you," Chris told me. So I twisted and shook a little but nothing crazy. Meanwhile him and Fred (FunkSquad) got down to dancing biz. At some point Chris took me and Stephen on this tour of an ancient boat that floated next to the pier. You were allowed to roam anywhere you pleased on the boat and below the deck was another DJ blasting breakdancing beats as people pop and locked across the dance floor. It was like something out of a lords of the underground type of flick.

By 3am I was dead tired, still loving the music, but in desperate need of my bed. Chris allowed us to go home only if we promised to come out to his party in Astoria the next evening. We agreed and half dazed found our ways home.

Here are some pics:

Tato and Mara --too cute for words

Clarissa's Crew

Stephen, me & Chris

Monse & Divine

the panel talks about the movie

Chris, I'm gonna steal your hats

FunkSquad

Quick shpeel about Saturday. I gather Marjorie and Nikki to join me in my Astoria adventure. Sneakers and tees? We're in! I made a pitstop in BK which I now regret, but ce la vie, and then into Astoria we rolled. I swear Chris gave me the wrong address cause we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere. But, there were the two red lights outside of Hell Gate Social. We slid in through the secret door and VOILA! one of the coolest lounges I've seen thus far with a patio that will host movie screenings in the summer. I made a few calls and soon enough Stephen appeared with Carlos and Black, then my Rockstar brethren Ryan showed up with MIMS. Music flowed from house to spanish to mainstream to reggae and threw it all we were chatting up and having a good time. By 3am we were starved, said our goodbyes to Chris and headed to Neptune dinner for some super early breakfast. Gotta love my friends, they are the ones who would be there for me when shit hit rockbottom later in the weekend... but I'm not going to write about that. Life is too good to be caught up on shit that isn't worth your time.

Enough of these cheesy pictures, Chris! Let's do something fun next time.

Teach me how to DJ?! ... Well first you press this, then u scratch that, then you bring this back ... oh forget it!

Ryan and MIMS, brotherly love

My troopers

Black goes for the sneak attack on my food.

Black tries to convince Carlos he didn't steal his food.. I'm sure!

Ya'll crack me up!