Tamayo

Jennif(f)er Tamayo (they/them) is a poet, performer and essayist whose works reimagine the narratives about and politics of undocumented figures in the contemporary U.S. In their books, performances, and digital media, the "illegal" immigrat is recast as a punk figure that queers the norms of personhood and citizenship. They are the author of the hybrid poetry collections [Red Missed Aches, Read Mistakes] selected by Cathy Park Hong for the Gatewood Prize and YOU DA ONE (Noemi Books). Their latest chapbook, to kill the future in the present (Green Lantern Press) blends lyric forms and critical theory to explore how conditions of displacement and incarceration shared by Black, Indigenous and undocumented communites are sites for collective struggle. JT's writing is widely published and has been anthologized in Best American Experimental Poetry, New Latin@ Writing, and HarperCollins. JT has received fellowships from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, Hemispheric Institute's EmergeNYC, CantoMundo, and the University of California Berkeley's Arts Research Center. They have staged performances at The Brooklyn Museum, BAMPFA, Midtown Arts & Theatre Center Houston, and La Mama Theatre.

They are a formerly undocumented, univited visitor born on Muisca territory (Bogota, Colombia) currently living on Sapponi territory.