BIO
Tatiana Figueroa Ramirez: I (she/her/hers) am a VONA Voices Alumna, having worked with award winning poets Willie Perdomo and Danez Smith. I currently perform, teach poetry workshops, and host events primarily in the greater Washington DC area, but have also done so nationally and in the Dominican Republic at venues including New York University, The Kennedy Center, and The Howard Theatre. My work has previously been published in The Acentos Review, as well as, in Here Comes Everyone (UK) and Queen Mob’s Teahouse, among other publications. I am the author of Coconut Curls y Café con Leche and the chapbook, Despojo.
As an Afroboricua, most of my work centers around identity, self-affirmation, and empowerment of marginalized communities. The particular piece I’m submitting, “A Conversation with the Tías,” highlights the anti-Blackness found in the Latinx community, despite how pivotal Blackness has been in forming what many identify as Latinidad. It also emphasizes the challenges Afrolatinx folk face within their community, family, and potentially themselves. I was compelled to submit to your call because of the urgency to amplify this message and to assert the importance of Black lives.
