"R" You Ready For This?

His name has been misspelled on various Howl! Festival press materials, as were the names of fellow poets Emanuel Xavier, Susan Scutti, Amy Ouzoonian and Thomas Fucaloro.  Just when we were about to correct the spelling and do a little “spotlight” on the poet formerly known as RA Araya (correct spelling), he decided to make it much easier for us.  He has now changed his name to one simple letter, “R.”

We’re not quite sure if the drastic name change is a direct result of our shameless spelling errors or if he was in fact just Ready (with a capital “R”) for a change, but it is quite a coincidence that the spelling errors and name change overlap with such perfect timing. In any case, “R” has definitely made it pretty difficult for us to botch up the spelling of his new name.  The only way possible to misspell “R” might be a slip of the finger, choosing  “T,” or “E,” which are right next to “R” on the keyboard. Or, if we wanted to be cute, we might spell his name “WR,” and claim the “W” is silent, like the old “Wremember- The ‘W’ is Silent” Wrangler Jeans advertisement. But we R just not going to go down that Road. From heRe  on in, he is R and we R going to spelling it coRRectly. Below is some background on R, the poet formerly known as RA ARaya.

Photo of "R" by Jo

R will be appearing at the Howl! Festival TWICE.

Friday, September 10^th 5-7PM The reading of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Tompkins Square Park, Avenue A at 7^th Street – FREE!

and

Thursday, September 16^th –8-10PM The Howl! Arts Project 2010 Presents: POETRY TURN-ON, St. Mark’s Church In-The-Bowery,

131 East 10th Street at Second Avenue $8.00

R is a Costa Rican poet and songwriter living in NYC. Under his former name, R hosted poetry readings and poetry with music performances in venues such as Tribes Gallery and The Bowery Poetry Club,and along the East Coast since 1992.  He hosted the Open Mic after Friday Night Slam at Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1997-98, and has acted in three of Steve Cannon's plays, among other NYC and New Hampshire productions. R has performed with Lawrence "Butch" Morris' "A Chorus Of Poets" at Lincoln Center in 1994, founded and manages since 1998 the Danish American Costa Rican rock poetics of 'flash-back-puppy,’ has curated art works with Lee Michael Klein and Dora Espinoza in NYC and is enjoying his three young sons tap dance, piano recitals, soccer games and martial arts tests.