Cafecito con… Mariposa Fernandez

Mariposa Fernández, a.k.a.  María Teresa “Mariposa” Fernández  is a fierce Afro/Black Puerto Rican poet & writer of the Nuyorican school, Letras Boricua Mellon Fellow, performance artist, visual artist, educator, activist & community historian. A proud New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx, Mariposa’s poetry has been featured on HBO, BET & PBS. Mariposa has performed throughout the United States & abroad. Author of Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Love & Survival, her work has also been published in Lift Every Voice: 250 Years of African American Poetry, The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, The Afro Latin@ Reader: History & Culture in the United States, Def Poetry Jam’s Bumrush the Page, Breaking Ground: Puerto Rican Women Writers in NYC 1980 – 2012 and Manteca: Anthology of AfroLatin@ Poets. Mariposa is a graduate of New York University where she received a BA in Gender & Sexuality Studies, and a Masters in Teaching and Learning/Bilingual Special Education. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Africana Studies Department and the Women Studies Program at Lehman College, and is also a faculty member of the Black Studies Program at CCNY, CUNY. For Mariposa, home base remains the Bronx, with frequent travel to Puerto Rico where she maintains strong ties. She is a member of the Bronx Wide Coalition as a delegate for The Point CDC.

Urayoán Noel is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Transversal (University of Arizona Press), which was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and named a Book of the Year by the New York Public Library. He has also published the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa Press), winner of the LASA Latino Studies Book Prize and an MLA Honorable Mention. As a translator of Latin American poetry, Noel has been a finalist for the National Translation Award and the Best Translated Book Award. His international performances include Poesiefestival Berlin, Barcelona Poesia, and the Toronto Biennial of Art, and his work has been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York and published in the New York Times. Originally from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Noel lives in the Bronx and teaches at New York University as well as at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas.