Hurray For The Riff Raff: True Folk From The NY Projects
New York Chapter interviewed Alynda Segarra at Newport Folk Festival in 2017. Her Hurray For The Riff Raff persona celebrates people-power, as well as her background growing up Puerto Rican in New York City projects. Running away from home at 17, she hopped trains and learned from the other rambling homeless the answer to her question, "Who wrote all these amazing songs?" That's how she discovered the work of Woody Guthrie. Patti Smith is her "dream" and David Bowie was a big influence on her 2017 album The Navigator and its Latina superhero character. The album follows Navita, Segarra explained, "growing up in the projects like I did and she really feels the limits." With her flair for "city poetry" amplified by arrangements that critics describe as a new kind of Americana, Segarra succeeds in her effort to "capture that bravery that young women have." Navita ends her quest, on the album, as an embodiment and teacher of "the brilliance of the Latin people."
