Okay, I'll say it.
I admire his energy and his evangelistic fervor. I'm glad to see a kid from San Diego make good, and he has certainly done a lot to promote the Latino arts community, as evidenced by things he's said in interviews, including a recent one in Rattle (excerpted
here). He's very, very savvy at garnering publicity, and seems eager to share the spotlight with others.
But I can't stand his poetry.
It seems prone to g/i/m/m/i/c/k/r/y and self-importance and scoring cheap brownie points for edgy buzzwords.
A small sample here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/juan-felipe-herrera
Much of it seems to be performance poetry that suffers badly when taken out of performance. So here it is in performance:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketc...htmlstory.html
Yes, the guy is very entertaining and likable and energetic...but if you listen to the actual words he's delivering with such panache, nothing exciting or memorable is going on. The emperor has no clothes. But oh, what a parade!