“ En la bahía de mi cerebro hay un recuerdo de cuerpos negros, un salto jubiloso sobre un cielo alegre que besó mi vida.”
R o g e r C a b a n
It is with a heavy heart that we share the passing of the well-respected, Puerto Rican photographer and founding member of En Foco, Roger Caban.
Caban will be remembered for his social work in El Barrio, which he was a proud native of. He was a social worker for Casa Mutua and Pathways to Housing. In 1993, he became a board member of Hope Community, Inc. and helped found the organization’ s annual poetry series, Poetas con Café, as well as the Ortiz-Wittenberg Art Gallery. Soy hijo legitimo de el Barrio, Caban would say fondly of his lifelong passion of El Barrio.
A self-taught photographer, Caban’ s work have been published in numerous annuals and publications. In the 1960s and‘ 70s, Caban was part of a group of young artist-activists creating community-based cultural organizations like En Foco and a writers collective, La Nueva Sangre. In collaboration with playwright Dolores Prida, he published a collection of poems and photographs titled, IRT Prayer Book, which led to a gallery exhibition. In addition, Caban worked with various Puerto Rican institutions including the National Puerto Rican Forum and ASPIRA. He was a member of the National Task Force on Hispanic Arts for the National Endowment for the Arts and a former chairman of the Special Arts Services
Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Background photograph and text Roger Nueva Caban Luz I Portrait 3 of Roger Caban by George Malave