1947—2013

David Hernández was a Chicago-based Puerto Rican poet and community activist. Known as “Chicago’s unofficial poet laureate,” Hernández was a founding member of the Latino Arts Movement and helped organize countless classes and programs throughout the city and across the country.

Hernández’s first book, Despertando/Waking Up (self-published, 1971), is commonly referred to as one of the first published poetry collections by a Chicago Latino. Also in 1971, Hernández and guitarist Dean Karabatsos founded Street Sounds, an award-winning ensemble of culturally diverse musicians performing original music and lyrics that combined urban street poetry, jazz, folk, and Afro-Latin elements.

Hernández began performing his poetry in the late 1960s on playgrounds and street corners while working as a community activist and as the Minister of Information for La Gente Organization in Chicago. His poetry collections include The Urban Poems (Fractal Edge Press, 2004), Rooftop Piper (Tia Chucha Press, 1991), and Satin City Lullaby (self-published, 1985).

In addition to running El Taller, a community-based arts workshop, Hernández taught poetry workshops at the Uptown Community Clinic, in Chicago Public Schools, and through community arts programs such as Gallery Humboldt Park. At the time of his death, he was running his Blueline Studio, a writing-performing-exhibition space in the Logan Square neighborhood.