Juan PaPo Santiago aka "PaPo Swiggity" is a poet, community organizer, and co-founder of Capicu Cultural Showcase, a long-running open mic series based in Brooklyn, NYC, inspired by the original Black Arts, Beat Poet, and Nuyorican Poet Movements, as well as La Sopa NYC: The School of Poetic Arts - an experimental educational arts series for artists and entrepreneurs, previously hosted at Boricua College, Loisaida Center, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

As a cultural worker, PaPo has received numerous honors and advocates for the idea that community is best healed from within by those who understand its needs, honor its strengths, and draw from their own lived experience to offer authentic interventions. His cultural work has been covered by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, the V-Me/PBS channel, and has been the subject of academic research and independent media publications.

Artist Statement

The #PaPoEtIc poetic reaction series is me reclaiming the space I always imagined for myself among poets. In each short video, you might see me doing a bit of literature analysis, psychoanalytic guesswork, and emotionally responding to spoken word poets or written poetry from all over the country - but with a focus on marginalized communities. It's early days, I started this over the summer of 2025 after finding that I had to rebuild my pages and presence after a particularly nasty hack, and I’m still shaping what it will grow into. What won’t change is my core intention: to honor a poet’s authorship and intent while also bringing them into conversation with a larger community. I love poetry open mics, but it's not easy to be fully present for the poem in the heat of a Capicu live event where I’m hosting, troubleshooting, and tracking a thousand things in the room while the poet is on stage. Hence, this new thing.

Perspective

I’ve been writing since I was 11 or 12, and the old soul in me believes some poems demand patience and my full, unbroken attention. This series reminds me to sit with messages that call for real contemplation if I’m going to respond with the depth they deserve. Ironically, the digital format isn’t much kinder than the three-minute open mic, it still pushes me to keep everything under five minutes if I want to be visible on these platforms. So unless I step fully into the long-form YouTube lane, this is where I practice the art of concision. In a way, it feels like a return to La Sopa... teaching, learning, and distilling big truths into small stanzas.

I use the term “react,” but my reactions carry nearly two decades of watching poets shoulder the messages of the Capicu movement. I keep it light, but I take it serious. That balance is the beat of this work. I try to release at least once a week and hold to my deadlines, but always with more respect for the poem than the algorithm.

Elevacion!

PaPo…

Connect with me…

Facebook - donpaposwiggity - Tik Tok - paposwiggity - Instagram - papoetic

Check out The #PaPoEtIc: Spoken Word

and Written Word Poetry Reactions

Click The Video Below! 

Editor’s Note

I’ve had the privilege of witnessing PaPo’s work up close for years, and I can say without hesitation… his impact runs deep. From co-founding Capicu to shaping his work into spaces like LA SOPA, PaPo has always been committed to building platforms where our people could be seen, heard, and valued.

What I love most about his work is the balance: he brings fire to the stage while grounding everything in love for community. He doesn’t just react to poetry…he honors it, sits with it, and brings it into dialogue with the larger struggles and joys of our people. That kind of love is rare, and it’s why his #PaPoEtIc series feels like such a natural extension of his journey.

In a world where algorithms demand speed, PaPo reminds us of the power of slowing down… of giving poetry, and the people who write it, the patience and attention they deserve.

PaPo isn’t just building content; he’s building connection, healing, and legacy. And that’s exactly the spirit we celebrate at Siembra Connect.

—George “Urban Jíbaro” Torres

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