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Friday, December 12, 7PM at Hostos College, 500 Grand Concourse Bronx, New York City (download leaflet)

Sunday, December 14, 4PM at Taller Puertorriqueño, 2557 North 5th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (download leaflet)

Tuesday, December 16, 7PM La Paloma Sabanera 406 Capital Ave, Hartford, CT (download leaflet)

Wednesday, December 17, 7PM at 60 Island Street, Lawrence,  Massachusetts (download leaflet)

Thursday, December 18, 7PM at 169 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts (download leaflet)

Friday, December 19, at 3361 6th Ave, Albany, New York (download leaflet)

This single audio CD is part of the fundraising efforts for Crime Against Humanity.  You can purchase the CD online. Visit ReyesPoetry.com

Download Blood Dries Black.

Crime Against Humanity is a co-production by the Batey Urbano & the National Boricua Human Rights Network. It is comprised of 27 scenes taken from interviews held with the ex-political prisoners and written correspondence with the 2 remaining political prisoners makes this play truly an experience with watch. It is the effort of the Batey Urbano and the NBHRN to use this play to educate people about the issue of the political prisoners, to further expose the injustice that two men are still in prison after 28 years and to reinvigorate the campaign for their release.

Presented by Café Teatro Batey Urbano

Every Friday and Saturday in April, doors open at 7PM
Batey Urbano, 2620 W. Division Street
$10.00 general admission

Seating is limited, so please RSVP:
Michael Anthony Reyes Benavides reyespoetry@gmail.com

Imagine 27 years of your life living in a space 6 feet by 9 feet. Imagine being confined in isolation with no human contact. Imagine the shakedowns, the strip searches and the complete disregard for your humanity. Crime Against Humanity is a play based on the real life experiences of fourteen Puerto Rican political prisoners who spent more than two decades in prisons for seditious conspiracy–two of whom are still incarcerated. Crime Against Humanity brings us into the U.S. prison system in a way no other play has, focusing on the politically motivated use of isolation, selective punishment, sensory deprivation and disproportionate sentences. For more information go to CrimeAgainstHumanity.net

Crime Against Humanity actor Samuel Vega was recently able to visit Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar López Rivera. The play is based on a series of extensive interviews with the Puerto Rican political prisoners excarcerated by President Clinton in 1999. What follows is a short reflection.

I get to the prison. As I walk toward the entrance guards from the watchtower make sure nothing looks suspicious. All the while I hope that nothing stops this historical visit from taking place—after all, it took 4 hours to get there. We get in. Registering and metal detection takes 10 minutes. It’s 10:05 A.M. When we got into the visiting room I noticed the clock was thirty minutes ahead marking 10:35 A.M. Apparently this is done to shorten people’s visits. We took a seat. As I looked around the visiting room, Black and Latino men sharing smiles with their visiting families filled the room. The little girls wrestling with their father dressed in his khaki uniform was hard to bear.

Doors opened and out came Oscar. Just like in the pictures except he might have dyed his hair grey. I don’t know if I was seeing things but Oscar had a little limp when he walked, a cool limp. That caught me off guard. Oscar’s coolness didn’t end there. I introduced myself and we began talking about the play, Crime Against Humanity. He laughed when I told him I recited his monologue because we look nothing alike. He was amazed to hear that the shows have been so successful that unfortunately people have had to stand up because they are so packed. He was glad that people are learning about his story through theater.

I asked about his life. Oscar recalled the days when he would go out dancing, making sure he dressed to impress, wearing the finest button ups and matching dress shoes. Then he was drafted to Vietnam. He remembered the training—being instructed to shoot dummies with sweat pants and straw hats. I asked if Vietnam changed the person he was. He said that his value for human life changed. When he came back to Humboldt Park heroin addicts roamed the streets and lack of jobs ruined families. Oscar’s interest in preserving his community intensified. The stunts he and his friends would pull to get jobs for people were hilarious. For example, when Clemente and St. Mary’s hospital were being built, they would stall construction to negotiate with developers to so that community residents could work. They would stall construction by buying people’s junk cars and chaining them down to the empty lots. It’s funny to hear him tell the story. You can really tell he enjoyed those times. He stressed the importance of having fun. He was pleased to hear all the fun we have at Batey Urbano and our trips to New York and Washington D.C.

After several hours of getting to know Oscar and hearing him joke around with us, visiting hours were just about over. You want to just take Oscar with you but you can’t. It was tough to just leave and go back to wondering what he is doing at this moment. For three hours I knew what he was doing. He was sitting down talking to me and telling me his life story as he sipped on a cup of coffee.

Es el título de la obra de teatro que busca llamar la atención sobre los presos polí­ticos puertorriqueños Oscar López Rivera y Carlos Alberto Torres, encarcelados desde hace 28 años en EE.UU.

Con risas, lágrimas y muchos aplausos, la comunidad boricua de Humboldt Park recibió el 7 de marzo otra presentación anticipada de seis de las escenas que componen “Crimen contra la Humanidad”, obra teatral coescrita por Michael Reyes Benavides, actor, poeta y activista de origen mexicano, y el ex prisionero político puertorriqueño Luis Rosa.

La presentación, realizada en la sede del Café Teatro Batey Urbano -2620 W. Division- fue la última de cuatro previas a su estreno oficial el 5 de abril en el mismo escenario, que contará con una intervención oratoria del coautor Luis Rosa.

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Monday, December 10, International Human Rights Day, over 70 people delighted in previewing a four-scene preview of Crime Against Humanity a play about Puerto Rican political prisoners in general and featuring monologues taken from letters Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera wrote to the playwright, who have served 27 and 26 years in US prisons, respectively. The preview took place at Batey Urbano, a program of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and featured members of Batey, Samuel Vega, Cindy Maldonado and Melissa Cintrón who performed a series of monologues based on interviews with former Puerto Rican political prisoners and written interviews with Carlos Alberto and Oscar. The preview was a fundraiser for the Chicago production of the play, which will debut in March 2008 and tour nationally beginning in April. Over $500 was pledged that evening and $700 raised in total.