Jorge Antonio Vallejos–Black Coffee Poet
Jorge Antonio Vallejos–Black Coffee Poet–is a mixed race, Toronto based, poet, essayist, and journalist. He is the creator of blackcoffeepoet.com. Son to a Peruvian mother (and Arab father) who introduced him to books at two weeks of age with regular trips to the local library, Black Coffee Poet developed a love for books quickly.
Losing himself in novels written by Gordon Korman as a child, Black Coffee Poet knew he wanted to be a writer in grade five after reading This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall. Learning that Korman wrote the book as an English project in grade seven, Black Coffee Poet decided that he too could write a book one day.
Immersing himself in true crime books as a teen, Black Coffee Poet wrote, and rewrote, his first piece in his head after his friend was shot dead on a sidewalk during a drug deal gone BAD.
Entering university as a mature student, Black Coffee Poet starting writing for University of Toronto newspaper The Window. Starting the first ever Indigenous column at UofT, The Condor’s View, Black Coffee Poet built a fan base, and a hater base, over four years, and was elected Editor in Chief in his fourth and final year with The Window.
For years Black Coffee Poet said many a time, “I hate poetry!” It was not until he found Not Vanishing by Chrystos –poetry that spoke to him, that he could identify with, that was written by people that looked like him, and about peoples like his mother and his friends, did Black Coffee Poet truly embrace poetry.
Black Coffee Poet reads and writes with a cup of black coffee at his side; hence the name Black Coffee Poet.
Black Coffee Poet writes regularly for Anishinabek News and XTRA!. His journalism has also appeared in THIS Magazine, Colorlines, Canadian Dimensions, and Rabble.ca.
Black Coffee Poet’s poems have appeared in Toronto Star, Our Times: Canada’s Independent Labour Magazine, EastSide Boxing.com, Descant, YU Free Press, FNH Magazine.
Black Coffee Poet’s personal essays have been published in the internationally read literary journals The Kenyon Review (Winter 2010) and Descant (Fall 2010), and Crave It (Red Claw Press, Spring 2011).
Most of Black Coffee Poet’s writing explores social justice, Indigenous rights, STOPPING violence against women , peoples of colour, working class peoples, literature, and his life experiences as a mixed race person of colour.
Black Coffee Poet is available for speaking gigs, workshops , and writing opportunities.
See the Black Coffee Poet YOUTUBE channel for poetry, interviews, roundtables, and workshops. Friend Black Coffee Poet on Face Book and Twitter. Contact Black Coffee Poet at blackcoffeepoet@gmail.com.
- Day 70 of Racism Free Ontario’s100 People of Colour Spotlight.
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(via Jorge Antonio Vallejos)
