The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Carmen Bardeguez-Brown is a poet and educator born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She moved to New York City in 1983 after graduating from the Universidad Interamericana. In the 1990s, she was part of the spoken word scene at the Nuyorican Poets Café alongside Miguel Algarín, Bob Holman, Louis Griffith, among others. 

Bardeguez-Brown is the author of Meditation on Love, Dance, Loss and Forgiveness (Marrowstone Press, 2022); Three Poets/Tres Poetas, a collaboration with Marlena Maduro Baraf and Julio César Paz (Marrowstone Press, 2022); Lo que aprendí al otro lado del mundo, a collaboration with Julio César Paz (self-published, 2020); Ritmos de ensueño: Despertando el Sueño (Pandora Lobo Estepario Productions, 2016); and Directamente de los tambores (The Hollis Media Group, 2012). 

She was also a member of the "Stoop" writing workshop, facilitated by Steve Cannon and Bob Holman. In 2015, she was selected to be part of an homage exhibit curated by Ricardo Muñiz. The exhibit featured 50 Puerto Ricans who have contributed to Puerto Rican culture and heritage in New York City. 

She has performed at The Soho Arts Festival, Longwood Art Gallery, La Casa Azul, New Year's Day Alternative Poetry Marathon, the Boricua College Poetry Series, The New York Poetry Festival in Governors Island, The Bowery Poetry Club, Sarah Lawrence College Poetry Reading series, Bronx Music Heritage Center, The Caribbean Cultural Theatre Literary Festival, Camaradas, Jackson Public Library in Stamford, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, Harvard University, Bowery Poetry Club, and Naugatuck Valley Community College: Danbury Campus.

Her poems have been published in anthologies such as: Antología sobre mujeres poetas nuyoricanas (2015), Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (St. Martin's Press-3PL 1994), ¡Manteca! An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets (Arte Público Press, 2017), Musings during a Time of Pandemic: A World Anthology of Poems on COVID-19 (Kistrech Theatre International, 2020), I Can't Breathe: A Poetic Anthology Of Social Justice (Kistrech Theatre International, 2021), and Trauma, Tresses, and Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Personal Narratives (Chicago Review Press, 2022). She also received the 2020 Latina 50 Plus Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Latinx literature in New York.

Works Cited

Bardeguez-Brown, Carmen. Interview. Conducted by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, 22 Sept. 2022.

“Carmen Bardeguez Brown.” CBBPoetry, cbbpoetry.wordpress.com/.