Jesus-Papoleto Melendez

Jesús Papoleto Meléndez is a Puerto Rican poet and playwright from El Barrio, East Harlem, and one of the original-founding members of the literary and cultural "Nuyorican Poets'" movement, initiated in the late 1960's. His play, "The Junkies Stole the Clock" 1974, was the first production of the Nuyorican Playwright's Unit at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. Meléndez is the author of several volumes of poetry, which have influenced the current trend in "Spoken Word" poetry. His latest publication, "Hey Yo / Yo Soy! - 40 Years of Nuyorican Poetry" (2012), is a collection of his first three poetry volumes, here translated into the Spanish language in their entirety.

Jesús Papoleto Meléndez studied acting in his El Barrio's local Boys Club of America center during the late 1950's and early 1960's, under the mentoring of Mr. Gordon Duffy. Meléndez makes his film acting debut in The Stockroom.