"I started writing when I was about 11 or 12. I'm an organic poet, I consider myself to be an organic poet. I have a BA in Women's Studies and an MA in Special Education. But I didn't formally start writing or literature. For my undergrad I minored in English Lit. and I took a couple of creative writing classes with an incredible professor, Professor Mark Crawford. But I really consider myself to be an organic, kind of grassroots poet that just, I really was influenced by the writers of the 60's like Sonya Sanchez and Ntesake Shange. But it wasn't until much later, maybe until I was in college that I started writing about identity and about you know, being Puerto Rican. Before that point, the poems were probably more about more a coming of age poems or whatever I was dealing with internally."

"I write what I need to write. You know I was recently asked, well what do you write about? Now yes, I could fit my writing into certain categories like identity and gender, race, class, social issues, but I also feel a part of me resents that. You know, that the world is set up that way. I don't have the luxury to write science fiction. And nothing against, you know, people of color who want to right science fiction. I write to look myself in the face, but of course I am just one person of many of a collective experience. My experience is part of a larger collective experience. So the issues that strike me are going to strike cords in other people."

"I used to run this open mic series up in Washington Heights called Son La Heights, and we did 90 weeks of straight poetry, for 90 weeks. And one of our slogans was 'in a society that seeks to silence us, our most powerful weapon is an open mic. You know, and what I did there was create a vibe and a safe place where people could read outside of the pressure and the competition that people felt downtown, that people felt at the Nuyorican on a slam night, you know. So, I remember one time slamming, this was a really really long time ago, and I recited this poem about ancestral rage, and our grandmothers being raped, and oppression and all that, and I got like a 7-something, and then this guy got up and he recited a poem about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Oh yeah, he got a 10. They always say that the best poem never wins. So that's cool. But I really don't, that's not really my thing...I find that that needs to be our role too, to be confrontational in whatever space we're in, and the spaces that we create. Because as women, you know, the spoken word or poetry scene or whatever you want to call it, is male dominated, just like any other scene."

"So it's like I have to deal with a lot of that too, and that's affected my writing. I have some poems that, like one poem called 'I feel sexy' that talks about sexual harassment on the street. Then, the space that we create is a safe space to challenge that, whereas me alone in the street...It depends on what mood I'm in, really. Sometimes I just ignore it. But sometimes we have to have our moments of rage and craziness. And I write a lot about issues of that, too...I feel, as far as unity between Boriquas, [que] somos de la raza. Hay solamente una raza. You know, so I identify con la raza, and I just feel like [being in the Bay Area] is an experience that is really going to enrich me personally as a human being, but also as a writer and a poet."

Photo by Francisco Villaflor