Last Request, A Posthumous Play By Nuyorican Poet Pedro Pietri, Will Premiere at the Clemente

Teatro LATEA at the Clemente Soto Velez Center will present the world premiere of Last Request, a dark comedy by Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri, written approximately two years before his death in 2004. Produced by Fantastic Experimental Latino Theater (F.E.L.T.), the production runs April 9–26 at Teatro LATEA at the Clemente, as part of the Clemente’s Historias initiative.

A rare theatrical work by the Poet Laureate of the 1960s Puerto Rican revolutionary organization the Young Lords, Last Request is the story of a corpse discovered in the lobby of a pre-war Bronx apartment building in the 1950s by a young couple, an old couple, and a blind couple.

F.E.L.T.’s associate director Juan Valenzuela was entrusted with the script shortly before Pietri’s death. Last Request is supported by the Clemente as part of its ongoing Historias initiative, a three-year multiphase celebration and recontextualization of the Latinx cultural community’s foundational contributions to New York City. The play represents a part of its “Everyday Poetics” track, examining how ordinary ritual and survival strategies become forms of cultural expression in Latinx communities.