#NiCorruptosNiCobardes

Poets come and go but, Nathaniel Santiago is here to stay. Majoring in Philosophy and minoring in English and Comm, the Chicagoan has been putting his poetry to work since he was in the 5th grade and has consistantly been writing since his junior yeah of high school, there he found slam poetry and even founded his own club. “Slam poetry uses your body and the way you say your words along with the poetry. Literary poetry can only rely on written work on a paper. What you do with slam doesn’t translate very well into literature,” Santiago said. He explained that recently been working on pieces that incorperate English and Spanish, “Inserting Spanish into poetry is a good way for me to show off who I am because not only does it catch some people off guard, but it also allows them to learn new words and find things to research that they may have never known about beforehand.”

Q: What inspires you to write poetry in general?

A: Not gonna lie, I have no idea. I used to write about my depression, anxiety, and other personal troubles. Only very recently have I been challenging myself to write about other things. It’s been a while since I’ve made one like I used to. I’ve started experimenting with different points of view and centos. But lately, most of my poetry has just been observations of the moment that inspire me.

Q: Where do you get your influence from?

A: I get a lot from good old-fashioned 90s hip-hop and slam poets. Most of my influence comes from black poets. It’s an interesting conversation to walk into because of the parallels between black and Hispanic sociopolitical issues. And you have rappers like Common and Talib Kweli, who talk a lot about their childhood and provide a philosophy that I, for the most part, agree with. I’ve only recently got into Kendrick Lamar, but I really understand the issues found in songs like Hood Politics and The Blacker and Berry. I see the back and forth hypocrisy of people in my own community, just like Lamar sees in his.

One of Santiago’s personal favorites: #NiCorruptosNiCobardes, which is about protests in San Juan, Puerto Rico, “I like it because it isn’t about me, but it still is something that I’m incredibly passionate about.”

#NiCorruptosNiCobardes

“SAN JUAN, P.R. — Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans filled miles of a major highway in San Juan... in protest against Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló…” - The New York Times, June 22, 2019

SIX weeks later- after some vacation, 
El Morro still towers and protects our 
motherland, but she cannot protect us 
from the threats looming within our boundaries. 
And while the coqui sings with bliss and grace,
we fight against those who speak in poor taste. 

FIVE days of blissful ignorance that haunt
un boriqua and his experiences.
Skyscraping mountains connect the heavens
down to very undesirable atrocities and animosities

FOUR corners of the motherland protest
with outrage under the sun. Mayor Cruz?
“You’d be doing me a favor.” Shoot her.
Council member Viverito? A “whore-”

THREE hurricanes later, a three-month span
of transcripts condemns its proud citizens.
Café con leche es muy agrio.

TWO weeks of protest under the summer
heat y Viejo San Juan echos its chants.

ONE island united. Soy Borinquen.

Jacob Duncan - Contributing Writer