After performing to over 5000 people throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Crime Against Humanity returns to New York-

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. The play brings us into the U.S. prison system, focusing on the politically motivated use of isolation, selective punishment, sensory deprivation and disproportionate sentences.

Written by poet and activist Michael A. Reyes Benavides and former Puerto Rican political prisoner Luis Rosa, the play confronts the physical and mental torture these prisoners endured for more than 27 years. We gaze into their cell and experience the loss of parents, the transition of children into adulthood and feel the physical brutality and torture of a government out to make an example of them. We see them as they refuse to be victimized and objectified, confronting their hardships and adversities while maintaining their dignity, and upholding their humanity.

Reyes Benavides spent hours interviewing the former Puerto Rican political
prisoners, and through extensive written correspondence, the two remaining political prisoners Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres. Through the play, we hear from their own mouths, their own words, exactly what it means to be a political prisoner in the United States.

Crime Against Humanity is produced by National Boricua Human Rights Network and Teatro Batey Urbano. These two Chicago-based organizations are using this performance piece to raise consciousness and gain support for the campaign to free the remaining Puerto Rican political prisoners.

GO TO THE OFFICIAL SITE AT    crimeagainsthumanity.net

Reyes combines hip-hop, poetry and the spoken word to create a unique blend of inspirational, innovative, poems, narratives and rhymes. Truly an emerging voice, Reyes’ fusses cultural stories, raw hip-hop and inspiring poems to reach youth and elders alike.

For the last seven years much of Reyes’ work has been dedicated to Café Teatro Batey Urbano, a project of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago. He has been involved in a variety of youth lead projects, including the founding of Zócalo Urbano, a Chicano-Mexicano/Latino youth space located in the neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village.

As part of Batey Urbano he has shared the stage nationally and internationally with many poets, artists and activists such as historical figures Lolita Lebrón, Delores Huerta, poets Tato Laviera, Pedro Pietri, La Bruja, and musical artists such as, Roy Brown, Dead Prez, Boca Floja, Luis Diaz of Intifada, and Grammy Award winner Malik Yusef.

As a poet and an artist he has been featured on HBO Latino’s Habla Series, and the PBS documentary Dream Makers. He has released three chapter books of poetry and 3 c.d.s. His work has also been featured nationally in many magazines, anthologies and newspapers.

He has worked with established institutions including; Chicago Public Radio, the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Museum Of Contemporary Art and the Poetry Center of Chicago.

As an actor, his credits include roles in Miguel Piñero’s famed play, The Sun Always Shines for the Cool, Urban Poet, Why Are U Running? Chicago Boricua, Public Theater's 365 Project written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and the feature film Humboldt Park starring John Leguizamo, and Freddy Rodríguez.

He has worked directly with famed NuYorican poet Tato Laveria on three productions titled The Spark, Chupacabera and the 1977 Division Street Riots. As part of his work with Tato he has served, both as an actor and a director.

Currently Reyes is touring the country with his new play Crime Against Humanity, co- written by former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Luis Rosa. Reyes has played the role of actor, writer and director for the play. Crime Against Humanity has received incredible community support and it is scheduled to tour until September of 2010.