Vanessa Chica Ferreira is a New York City educator, writer, poet, playwright, and self-proclaimed fat activist. She started writing journals when she was a child after being inspired by Anne Frank's diary. She is also the curator and editor of "What They Leave Behind, a Latinx Anthology," a powerful collection compiling the work of over 50 Latinx poets whose poems embody and celebrate the Latinx diaspora in all its complexity.
"I believe the purpose of my poetry is to create, to connect, to release, to contemplate, to be petty, to remember, to heal, to tell, to inform, for activism, to honor my mother's memory," she tells POPSUGAR. "It is a shapeshifter that changes with my needs."
She feels that anyone can sense the influence of her cultural identity in her poetry, which contains Spanglish, references to merengue, memories of patios and aguacates, and the sacrifices her mother made to leave Santo Domingo and get them to the US.
For those who've never read poetry or think poetry in't for them, she recommends starting with poetry from people who look and sound like you. "Find the poetry that speaks to you," she says.
