Felipe Luciano

Felipe Luciano (born c. 1947 in East Harlem, New York City, New York,) is an American poet, community activist, journalist, media personality, and politician. He is of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage.[1][2]

Luciano served time in prison for manslaughter[2] in the fatal stabbing of a Brooklyn teenager in the early 1960s. Following his release, he attended Queens College and became a member of the Original Last Poets (with Gylan Kain and David Nelson).

He and five other members co-founded a New York branch of the Young Lords (later this group changed its name to Young Lords Party). Their local legal counsel was a young Jerry Rivers (now known as Geraldo Rivera) and served as its chair. The original Young Lords as a movement began in Chicago and spread nationally. It was founded by Jose Cha Cha Jimenez who transformed the original group from a gang. It developed politically because the Puerto Rican community in Chicago was being gentrified and families were being displaced. The Young Lords Party in NYC was a branch which sprouted from within the Young Lords Movement.The New York branch was formed primarily as a student political movement. It later coalesced with several other New York branches of the national Young Lords to form a New York Regional Chapter.

Luciano later became a radio, television, and print journalist, and became President of Luciano Productions, Inc.