Hoop Dreams!

Staten Island resident has 'Hoop' dreams

by Rob Bailey

Thursday March 12, 2009, 1:00 AM

Linda Nieves-Powell explores whether hoop earrings are "sexy, trashy or empowering" in her new short documentary "The Bigger the Hoop."

Leave it to the gals at my corner bodega to boil a pop culture conundrum down to its purest point. Cashier 1: Huh? Girl, those hoops are hoochie. Cashier 2: No, these hoops are me.

It should come as no surprise that New Springville renaissance woman Linda Nieves-Powell is weighing in on the topic via her new short documentary "The Bigger the Hoop." (Watch it now at Cinedulce.com.)

The writer-turned-filmmaker says her new "baby" explores whether hoop earrings are "sexy, trashy or empowering."

Alert Islanders will remember Nieves-Powell from the 2001 off-Broadway run of "Yo Soy Latina!," her witty fact-based play about Latinas in contempo America. The ensemble piece has since toured the country.

Her first novel, the disarming "Free Style," was published to nationwide critical acclaim in 2008.