At once a moving personal memoir and a colorful portrait of life in New York's Lower East Side (Loisaida), this masterly collection of poems captures the whirlwind of sights, sounds, celebrations and sorrows of urban life. As father of the contemporary Latino literary movement and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Miguel Algarin has brought the diverse voices and talents of the downtown New York scene to audiences throughout the world. In these poetic renderings of the lives and deaths of numerous friends, Algarin the poet celebrates both the well known and the obscure - and brings to life private loves, nurtured in both pain and joy, and public collaborations, born in the turbulent excitement of Algarin's cafe. In the centerpiece of the book, the poet offers a searing, unsentimental look at himself and his life.