Editor’s Note: this is an excerpt from an upcoming theatrical performance called GHETTO HORS D’OEUVRES at the BUSHWICK STARR.
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ECONOMIC NOSEBLEED
Economic Nosebleed
Cadillac dreamin
Round trip he called me Cadillac
El puerto stash house.
They spoke of cocaine sweet sweet candy
Back seat dialogue between El Liberty Bell y Bayamon.
Baking soda flavor dreams of lactose brain wave
Justin Biever bank rolls
“Please! please! papi please! bring 3 out, please!”
Intermission
BUMP!
BUMP!
Disco baby trying to relive those moments of flash
Polyester swagg till we reach Madison Ave.
Thats 27 dollars round trip.
El gran mar de plata
Old school players by force
Most little hood niggas 101 course
Nintendo’s dissolves
Mayonnaise jars make my life evolve into commercial
traps Of pure Jordannomics, Bentley trucks.
Dont forget the revolution never made to us.
Those thoughts of normality evade us.
Du-Rags get used as strainers
Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty
Teach us,
Change us.
POP!
POP!
POP!
Desensitize us, strange us,
Taino taxilandia thug
Danger! Danger, danger,
Battery low...
Wake up! If there's any hope it lies on the proles 1984
Orwellian contradictory soul
Can we communicate without toys
Giving insights to motivate the masses
Get up your asses
El viejo me Hablo y me enseno
Pass Ke lo Ke y Miralo! Miralo! Miraloooo!
Caonabo control antes ke se apague el sol
Fuck el dolor, baila con la oscuridad
Nada pasa sin el movimiento rojo
Mentals controloa con oro
Un Brit y El Platano pulling off 2 sawn off shot guns
De intellectual property
Toma revolucion
Fuck el crack recojer un lapiz
Zapata y Ghandi meeting en las nubes Andes
Politiking of the youth
Caring for blunts with the mean looks
Trying to get currency of the rap hooks
Beinbenido a la moderna esclavitud
Vengo from a third world country
De callejones y tigueraje
Looking for la arte baby, looking for la arte
Baby steps with fumes living the air
Asking for my self to pick up some leaves
Pick up some leaves
Spray paint talk
Canvas from artist begin to walk
Remember that canvas from artist can begin to walk
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MODESTO “FLAKO” JIMENEZ is a Dominican-born actor, writer and arts educator raised in Brooklyn, New York. While still in high school, he co-founded Real People Theater, a company best known for reworking plays by combining some of the language of the original texts with street slang and Spanish. Two personal favorites were Milton’s Paradise Lost and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The company received great acclaim in the worlds of education and theater, and toured North America and Europe. Modesto has also performed on stage with the Wooster Group and Repertorio Español in New York. His recent focus has been on his writing, and on addressing the social and political changes affecting the Latin American communities in his neighborhood. He has appeared on broadcast and online radio to discuss politics throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and to share his poems and stories. He’s also appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and shared the stage with Wallace Shawn, Frances McDormand, and Maura Tierney. In 2012 he published a poetry collection addressing gentrification called Oye, Para Mi Querido Brooklyn (Listen, For My Dear Brooklyn). Modesto also Teaches Puppets & Poets workshops at the local public school P.S 123. He is currently working on a memoir and one-man show about growing up as an immigrant in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
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MODESTO JIMENEZ performs this month in GHETTO HORS D’OEUVRES at the BUSHWICK STARR.
Read more of MODESTO JIMENEZ’s work HERE.