Bonafide Rojas

Poet and musician Bonafide Rojas was born and raised in the Bronx. He is the author of four collections of poetry: Pelo Bueno: A Day in the Life of a Nuyorican Poet (Dark Souls Press, 2004), When the City Sleeps (Grand Concourse Press, 2012), Renovatio (Grand Concourse Press, 2012), and Notes on the Return to the Island (Grand Concourse Press, 2017). He founded Grand Concourse Press, named after the thoroughfare he grew up on, in 2012.

Rojas identifies as one of the “next generation” of Nuyorican poets. In an interview with Gabriela Sierra Alonso, Rojas notes, “I don’t do the salsa thing. I’m a Nuyorican poet, but that’s not my thing. I embrace the Nuyorican label as an artist, and as a poet—because it is a school. … The truth is that I’m Puerto Rican, and there are many ways to express that—not just by listening to our parents’ music, or going to these hyper cultural events.”

Rojas is the 2002 slam this! champion and has performed on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam as well as in numerous venues in New York City and internationally. His writing appears in journals and anthologies that include Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press, 2001) and Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art (Third World Press, 2002). He is a guitar player and leader of the rock group Mona Passage. He lives in New York City and travels frequently to Puerto Rico, where he lectures on poetry with the hope, according to Alonso, “of inspiring the next generation of Nuyorican poets.”