Jani Rose is poet, activist, curator and performer who was born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx who began writing poetry at the age of 7. She is a product of Sylvia Plath and Method Man, Poe & Julia De Burgos. As a Fellow & part of the leadership of the Acentos Writers' Workshop, the generative workshop branch of the Acentos Poetry Foundation, she takes to the the stage and page to share her love of art & words, survival of the psyche, motherhood, life, love and the Nuyorican experience. And she loves roses, chocolate covered almonds, dragonflies & Chanel No. 5.
"Having been born and raised amongst cultural mavericks in urban New York City, art became a motivating force very early in my life. I'm a Nuyorican girl born on Museum Mile/5th Avenue, right across the sreet from Central Park, my oasis. While raised in the Bronx and Spanish Harlem, I spent summers soaking in the energy and flavor of Puerto Rico.
By age 7 I was scribbling my thoughts into marble notebooks, by 17 I was pouring the musings ruminated upon in times of angst and exhilaration into captive audiences. My emotions and memories gurgle onto the page, the screen & even napkins when necessary. Scribbles that have paved the path to this day.
I live artfully, enjoying the light and color in my daily walk. Words rise, bubble up, choke and press out of me. I write to connect, to understand and to speak to the part of you that lives in me, to search for the part of me that lives in you."
I've shared words at such venues as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Webster Hall, Hunter College, Bowery Poetry Club, Stony Brook University, Capicu Poetry & Cultural Showcase at the Notice Lounge, The Inspired Word, Long Island University, La Pregunta Cafe, Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, Perk's, Hostos Community College, Voices Unbroken, La Loba Poetry at Lolita's, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center, Camaradas el Barrio for Beats, Eats & Words, Live @ Best Buy, East Harlem Cafe, The Hudson Theater at the Millennium Hotel, and the living room of Roberto 'Plena' Irizarry & Bonafide Rojas during the 1791 Bookwarming Party and a lot of other places I forgot to write down. Good times...
Come back soon to keep abreast of upcoming performances & for the opportunity to purchase my first publication, "Musings and Scribbles"
~ Amor y Poesia ~
Jani Rose
Jani Rosado is a poet and performer, born in Spanish Harlem, and raised in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. She began writing poetry at the age of 7, and through Prep for Prep, a program which facilitates scholarships for "inner city children", she went from public school to Trevor Day, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. By the age of 17 she enjoyed performing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe after learning about the open mics via friends at Eugene Lang, the New School, where she attended poetry workshops. While still in high school she began working as an activist and peer educator at Mount Sinai's Adolescent Health Center, with the S.P.E.E.K. (Sinai Peers Encouraging Empowerment through Knowledge) and S.T.A.R. Theater programs, youth lead pregnancy and disease prevention, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS workshops at schools and community organizations. As a marketing major at the Fashion Institute of Technology she acquired a position as an agent at Perrella Management, a two decade old agency which tends to the careers of every kind of stylist available for film and print. With the knowledge she acquired representing a stable of 25 artists she opened a boutique agency, image Cultura, in 2009 where she briefly represented two illustrators, Santiago and Diana Ponce.
It was during this time that she returned to writing and performing as a career, beginning humbly, once again at the mic. Within a short time she was featuring at universities, poetry clubs, community centers and schools all over new York City. Her efforts to bring voice to appreciation of culture, spirituality, the dynamics of Nuyorican identity, the beauties and challenges of motherhood, the ups and downs of everyday living, the tenderness and bitterness of love, have garnered her the respect of those who love the written word with beautiful comparisons to her inspirations, Julia de Burgos, Ntozake Shange and Sylvia Plath. Her voice has become known as one of simple truth and deep connections this has given her the opportunity to raise funds for Haiti, Maggie's Latin Angels (American Breast Cancer Society), Park Performing Arts Center (community theater in Union City, NJ), First Foot Theater (a young burgeoning theater company in NY), and GEMS (an advocacy program for commercially and sexually exploited girls and young women) amongst others. As host of the Latina Empowerment Series, a networking program created by Social Sofrito/Capicu Cultural Showcase, she introduces and facilitates conversation between women who have attained success in their fields and women seeking partnership with others who are equally driven. The opportunity to celebrate Miguel Algarín's life with a birthday tribute, alongside partner Roberto Plena Irizarry, and a recent reading of Algarín's work and a discussion with him, both on stage at the Nuyorican have been highlights for her as she considers him one of the catalysts and causes of the beauty that we experience as poets in New York City.
As an Acentos Poetry Foundation Fellow, she is part of the leadership team and a facilitator of the Acentos Poetry Workshop, the free weekly poetry generating workshops held at Hostos Community College every Sunday in the Bronx where notable writers such as Cornelius Eady, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor and Martín Espada have graced the classroom with their knowledge. Presently working on a project with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, where she will speak on a panel alongside Sandra María Esteves, Willie Perdomo and Rich Villar, at Hunter College as a member of the Sangre Viva Art Alliance. She is dedicated to archiving her experience and that of the Puerto Ricans/Nuyoricans who are working toward the bettering themselves and every consecutive generation. A compilation of her work will be available by early 2012 but for the present time her website serves as a portal into her poetry, experiences and activities.
Visit www.musingsandscribbles.com for more information.
To view videos visit BombaPlena @ Youtube.
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