Urayoan Noel

On April 12, 1976  Tomas Urayoan Noel Martinez was born in Puerto Rico; but goes by Urayoan Noel. Urayoan Noel  received his B.A. at the University at Puerto Rico, his M.A from Stanford and his Ph.D. from NYU and is now a poet as well as an Assistant Professor of English at the University at Albany SUNY.
His areas of research  include Latino/Latina culture, poetry of the Americas, and United States poetry since 1950.  He currently lives in the Bronx, New York.
Noel has put an emphasis on his research on questions of performance, translation, circulation, and the relationships between the aesthetics and politics in North America. Photo credit goes to Urayoan Noel on his website http://urayoannoel.com/
He is known today for being a poet that has questioned the American government, a translator, and a scholar. Currently, he is a fellow on the Bronx Council on the Arts, as well as a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican studies at Hunter College. Information can be found at http://urayoannoel.com.
The poems by Urayoan Noel in the anthology The Wind Shifts can be appreciated by Latino/Latina people who have been treated unfairly by the American government because the poems address the problems people, especially from Puerto Rico, have gone through since their emergence in the United States.
Noel's most famous poem is Kool Logic/ La logica kool. This poem is presented in both English and Spanish which reinforces his bi-lingual background as well as shows the problems of capitalism reach out to a far wider crowd than just English speaking people.  Each stanza has the phrase, "This is the kool logic/Of late capitalism". The problems shown are varied, ranging from mindsets of people in the Americas as well as the problems Noel sees with love and values.
Noel seems to think that poems are also meant to be heard, not just read.  He has a DVD of his performances as well as a YouTube account that has many Spanish and English poems recorded that he keeps up with daily, which can be found here http://www.youtube.com/user/urayoannoel.  I do not think Noel wants to be a recorded artists, but rather be heard both in a serious manner regarding the problems he sees in society but with a hint of care free living.