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Mad love to her! |
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Mayda at the National Poetry Slam in Seattle, Final Competition, 2001.
Photo: Syreeta McFadden |
Mayda Alexandra del Valle is a misplaced displaced jibara without a homeland. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, she began performing her own writing while in high school and left the windy city in 1996 to attend Williams College in Williamstown, MA. She graduated in June of 2000 with a BA in Studio Art. During her last semester at Williams, Mayda decided to return to her love of writing and conducted an independent study on spoken word and performance, while also working on a thesis for her studio art major. The two projects began overlapping and informing each other and resulted in two major bodies of work: a series of 5 short poetry videos, and an hour long one-woman show, what i is: self-portrait in words. Self-portrait was a multi-media performance, in which Mayda used original video, music, visual art, writing. Covering topics such as relationships, identity, and experiences as a minority student at a small liberal art college, Mayda is now working on editing and updating that piece and hopes to perform it again in the near future. Relocating to New York in October of 2000, one of Mayda’s first stops was the Nuyorican Poets Café Wednesday night open slam. Never having performed poetry competitively, Mayda won 4 of her first 5 slams and qualified for the Grand Slam in June. The rest is history. She walked away with the 2001 title, earning her a spot on the 2001 Nuyorican National Slam Team that would go to the National Poetry Slam in Seattle. At Nationals, high scores and placements after 2 rounds of preliminary bouts left her as the third highest scoring poet out of 250 and meant she was able to compete in the individual semi-final, and went on to qualify for finals as well. At the individual finals, on August 4, 2001, Mayda wowed audiences in Seattle and walked away with the 2001 National Poetry Slam individual title. No small feat for someone who began slamming only 9 months earlier! Mayda draws inspiration for her writing from all kinds of sources. Urban environments like Chicago and New York…growing up in a multi-cultural neighborhood, with Mexican immigrants, Arab-Americans, Black, and Polish people. Being Puerto Rican and being a woman, hip-hop culture and Latin jazz, salsa and R& B, Al Green and Willie Colon, Mary J. and Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. Hector Lavoe and Ella Fitzgerald, music and dance, the Virgin Mary and Vieques… Mayda can currently be found in Queens catching up on 4 yrs of writing, taking acting classes, and working on her one woman show, a play, chap book and CD. |
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At the Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Photo: Clare Ultimo |
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