DIRECTORY LISTING
Biography
Education
- B.A., New York University
- M.A., New York University
María Teresa “Mariposa” Fernández (she/her) also known by her pen name Mariposa Fernández, teaches Creative Writing and Literature courses, as well as courses in Africana, Latinx and Women’s & Gender Studies. She is also a Faculty Fellow of the Transformative Texts / Anchored in the Liberal Arts program (ATLAS), funded by the Teagle Foundation. Her research interests include the preservation of family and community histories through poetics, autoethnography and digital humanities; Black Radical Feminism; The Nuyorican / Black Arts Writing Tradition; and cultural production and organizing in response to climate crises.
A proud first-generation college graduate and Bronx based, Black Puerto Rican poet, educator and activist, Fernández is the author of Born Bronxeña: Poems on Identity, Survival, Love & Freedom. Her poetry has been published in the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature; African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song; Manteca: Anthology of AfroLatin@ Poets; Bumrush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam; and Breaking Ground: Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York City, 1980 – 2012. Her poems have also appeared in magazines and journals including Hostos Review; And Then; and A Gathering of the Tribes Magazine. Her poems can also be found on the Academy of American Poets website.
Mariposa’s published essays, include the essay and audio narration, “A Nuyorican Poet for the Ages,” in Memorias de Miguel, The Hard Work of Love; and “Power and Pride: A Poet’s Notes on Marching in The Puerto Rican Day Parade,” in Latinas: Anthology of Struggles & Protests in 21st Century, USA .
Fernández served as a consultant on the Spanish translation of Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems / Belleza Salvaje by Ntozake Shange, translated by Álejandro Alvarez Nieves.
In 2023, Fernández was named Climate Justice Faculty Fellow at The Center for the Humanities / CUNY Graduate Center, where she serves on the Climate Research Action Team (CRAT) of the NYC Climate Justice Hub, a CUNY learning partnership with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYCEJA). In 2021, in recognition of her poetry, Fernández was named an Inaugural Letras Boricua Fellow, by the Flamboyan Foundation and the Mellon Foundation and awarded a $25,000 Fellowship. Fernández is also recipient of the 2021 City Artist Award, given by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the 2020-2021 CUNY Adjunct Incubator Award, given by the Center for the Humanities at The CUNY Graduate Center.
Her work has been featured in the HBO series Habla Ya!, Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S., BET, PBS and the international documentaries, “In Her Own Words: Nuyorican Poet and Activist,” a film by Wilfried Raussert and Alina Muñoz Knudsen and “Fragments of Belonging: El Alma Dividida de Puerto Rico,” a film by Friederike Bischoff and Raphael Vazquez, both produced by Bielefeld University, Germany (2020).
To learn more, visit: “https://linktr.ee/lapoetamariposa