Poets
Melania-Luisa Marte is a first generation American writer and performer. She was born in the Bronx and raised in the Lower East Side of New York City. Her multi-cultured upbringing inspires her to write about navigating the world as a native Spanish speaker of Black Dominican descent. She has performed in universities and venues across the country.
Her most viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over 9 million views. Her work has also been featured in Dallas Morning News, Ain’t I Latina, Curated By Facebook, and People En Español.
Marte ranked 5th at the 2018 Women of The World Poetry Slam Competition, and was just recently a finalist at the 2018 Individual World Poetry Slam Competition in San Diego, California. Her debut collection of poetry, “MELA,” was released last year. Marte’s poetry explores many subjects including her roots and culture, intersectional feminism, and self-love.
Angelica Maria Aguilera is an international touring Chicana poet and teaching artist from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Aguilera comes from a mixed family of immigrants and uses spoken word to rewrite the narrative of what it means to be Mexican, woman, and American. She is a finalist of both the National Poetry Slam 2017 and the Women of the World Poetry Slam 2018. Her work has appeared on platforms such as Button Poetry, and publications such as Maps for Teeth magazine, Voces Magazine in Mexico City, and The BreakBeat Poets Anthology: Latinx Edition 2020.
Aguilera is a Tedx Speaker and a TESOL certified instructor, facilitating writing workshops in both English and Spanish. She is a workshop leader of the 2018 National Poetry Slam of Mexico in Mexico City and has led similar workshops for universities including Harvard Medical School, Boston University, among many others. She resides on the border of El Paso and Juarez Mexico where she has just published her newest collection of poetry “Body Flag.”