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| Photo by Michael Leonard |
Her Story
Her Story
Born from immigrant parents of the Dominican Republic, Jasminne
Mendez was blessed to learn both English and Spanish at a very early age. She
has used these skills to her advantage throughout her life by performing,
reading and writing poetry, short stories and plays in both languages.
She attended the University of Houston from 2002 -2007 where
she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and her M.Ed. in
Curriculum and Instruction. While at the University of Houston she played
leading roles in various plays including A Raisin in the Sun, For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, and Yerma. She also spent
many of those early years writing and performing poetry in local venues around
the Houston area.
In 2007 her work was transferred from the stage to the
printed page when her creative non-fiction piece, The China Cabinet was
published in the anthology, Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their
Lives by Arte Publico Press. Since then, she has been published by or has
forthcoming publications with, Crab Creek Review, The Acentos Review, Label Me
Latino/a, Gulf Coast Magazine, The Texas Review, La Galeria Magazine, The Best
of CutThroat: A Journal of the Arts, Telling Our Stories Press, University of
Chester, Whispering Angel Books, Floricanto Press and others.
As a performance poet, she has performed for the Mexican
American Studies department at both the University of Houston central campus
and the University of Houston Clearlake Campus. She has performed at other
prestigious venues around Houston including Talento Bilingue de Houston, MECA,
Houston Community College(HCC), the Holocaust Museum, the Alley Theatre and the
Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH).
In 2009 she had the privilege of opening for award-winning
author Sandra Cisneros at Rice University for over 500 audience members. In the past, she has also had the privilege
of sharing the stage with notable artists and writers, Amalia Ortiz, Taylor
Mali, and Dagoberto Gilb. Recently she was awarded Best Houston Performer of
the Year by RAW: Houston and her first multi-genre memoir Island of Dreams
received first place for Best Young Adult Latino Focused Book by the
International Latino Book Awards. In spring 2016, her essay El Corte was awarded Honorable Mention for the Barry
Lopez Creative Non-Fiction Prize through CutThroat: A Journal of The Arts, and
in the fall of 2016 her collection of essays Interruptions & Detours was a
semi-finalist for the Rose Metal Press Essay Chapbook Prize.
She is a Canto Mundo Fellow, a VONA Alumni, a Macondo Fellow
and a current MFA creative writing candidate at the Rainier Writing Workshop at
Pacific Lutheran University. Her second book, Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e:
Personal Essays & Poems was published by Arte Public Press in April 2018.
An interview and discussion of the book
with Daniel Chacón - here
Un tintero es la fuente del escritor.
Jasminne is a major collaborator in this endeavor.
The word tintero is Spanish for inkwell, a old school container once used to house the ink for a pen. The image was selected as a way to show that this project, this movement is about providing resources for the writer. .
Founded by poet Lupe Méndez, Tintero Projects / Proyectos Tintero aims to promote writing & reading opportunities for emerging Latinx poets and writers in the Houston – Galveston/Gulf Coast Region. Originally founded as just “Tintero Readings”, Méndez hopes to reestablish a nurturing aspect to the every growing Latino writing community, with Houston as its main hub.
Tintero Projects is the emerging writer’s arm of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, focusing on creating workshop, performance and community opportunities in Spanish, English, Spanglish, Indigenous Languages and Portuguese. Tintero Projects is dedicated to helping create a platform for Latinx writers and Writers of Color.
You can craft creative nonfiction with Jasminne at the helm at this upcoming. workshop - register via this link.
Work and write with Jasminne
You can craft creative nonfiction with Jasminne at the helm at this upcoming. workshop - register via this link.
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