“I am my Mother's blood on it's best behavior”

BIO/POETRY CV

Rico Frederick is a graphic designer and the author of the book Broken Calypsonian (Penmanship Books, 2014), holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Finalist, Fulbright semi-finalist, Cave Canem Fellow, Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow, Pushcart nominee, and the first poet to represent all four original New York City poetry venues at the National Poetry Slam. His poems, artistic work, and short film have been featured in the New York Times, Muzzle, Epiphany, No Dear Magazine, The Big Apple Film Festival, an Academy of American Poets Contest - Honorable Mention, Best of the Net Anthology Nominee (poetry) 2017 and elsewhere. Rico is a Trinidadian transplant, lives in New York, loves gummy bears, and scribbles poems on the back of maps in the hope they will take him someplace new.

"Heartbreaker" a stereoscopic short film in collaboration with Director, Aron Baxter and produced by Nice Shoes was a 2011 Official Selection of the 8th Annual Big Apple Film Festival. My main contributions to this 3D film project includes: writer, performer and assistant art director.

manuscripts

Broken Calypsonian – Penmanship Books (2014)

FEAST On Our FAMINE – MFA Thesis Topic: Poetic activism, interactive dinner table setting and book (upcoming)

publications

The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry – A Better Savior, Keep De Hacksaw on Mary Poppins’s Throat Winter 2021
Brooklyn Rail – Empty Goddess, Public Viewing, Whitney Healthcare Spring 2021
The Southampton Review – A Burying, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural, Aye Mr. Baldwin Fall 2020
Great Weather for Media Anthology – These Bones Break Bread (Pushcart Prize nominee) Winter 2019
Bodega Magazine – Not Done, Just Through   Spring 2019
Stone Coast Review – From a Letter My Mommy Wrote Came This Winter 2019
Los Angeles Review of Books – Poetry & the Body: Un-Loving the Inner Self Spring 2018
Academy of American Poets Contest - Honorable Mention
Los Angeles Review of Books – Poetry & the Body: O, little breath of oblivion Or
How We Black Godiva Over a bullet at a Traffic Stop? Spring 2018
Academy of American Poets Contest - Honorable Mention
– Would you eat the moon for a little taste of the sun Summer 2017
Anomaly (Sacred Americas-Drunken Boat) – The Nine Steps of a Tap Dancer
+ How a ngh be ah ngh in ngh compa’ny but don’t feel lik ah ngh no mo’ –Pt 2+3
(Best of the Net Anthology Nominee) Fall 2017
Epiphany Lit Journal – Hey Mom & Carolina Smoke Stacks Fall 2016
Poet House Emerging Poets Fellowship – stormy song, to drown the rattle    Spring 2016
No Dear Magazine – Blood coughed across the sky Spring 2015
Muzzle – Four Hours At The Hospital   Fall 2013
Cold Front (website) – Song of the Day: What Sarah Said Spring 2016
Cold Front (website) – Song of the Day: Turn Down For What? Summer 2015
Great Weather for Media – Interview with Thomas Fucaloro Summer 2015

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship – Finalist Award Winner 2023
African American Garden – New York Botanical Garden (poetry installation) 2023
Cave Canem Fellow 2016, 2018, 2022
La Maison Baldwin Writers-in-Residence Fellowship Winner 2019
Fulbright Program Semi-Finalist 2019
MFA in Writing (GA) with Distinction – Pratt Institute 2018
Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow 2016
Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Finalist 2012, 2011, 2008, 2007
Intangible Slam Grand Slam Finalist 2012, 2011
Jersey City Slam Grand Slam Champion 2012
Nuyorican National Poetry Slam Team Member 2012 (Ranked 3rd Nationally)
Urbana Poetry Slam Grand Slam Finalist 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007
The LouderARTS Project Grand Slam Champion 2010

awards & honors

African American Garden – New York Botanical Garden (poetry installation) Season Opening 2023, Supa Dupa Fresh —in conversation with The Obama Portraits. – Brooklyn Museum 2021
Cave Canem Reading – First Saturdays at Brooklyn Museum 2018, New York City Poetry Festival 2016, 2018, Epiphany Lit Mag 2016, No Dear (Blk Poets Spk) 2016, Lit Crawl NYC 2016, Boog City Festival 2016, Poets House Emerging Poets Reading 2016, Nuyorican Poets Cafe 2000-2023, Great Weather for Media’s Spoken Word Sundays 2015, Kiss*Punch*Poem 2015, The Faculty House at Columbia University 2015, Suffern Poetry 2015, Mental Marginalia 2015, No Dear Magazine (Issue Release) 2015, Urbana Poetry 2015, The Eagle & the Wren 2014, The Louder Arts Project 2014, Summer Stage Concert Series NYC 2014, Montclair Poetry Festival 2014, Yale Peabody MLK Day Family Festival 2013, SUNY Oneonta 2012, Binghamton University 2012, The Pigeon Presents: The Philadelphia Poetry Slam 2012, First Thursday Poetry Reading – Hawai’i 2011, The Big Apple Film Festival (Short Film Category) 2011, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 2011, Pop-Up-Poetry 2010-2014, Utica College 2008, Rider College 2008, PACE University 2008, Fordham University 2008, and 2012 National Poetry Slam (PSI) 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012

EVENTS: Lincoln Center-We Are the Work/JustMedia Inc. Artist Installation 2021, CUNY Video interview 2016, Liers League (performance of another authors short story) 2015, ALL DEF POETRY (performance for a website) 2014, Pier 59, Chelsea Piers (Nice Shoes Advertising Event) 2011, Spoken Word Almanac Project 2008 (poems written based on News articles for the year)

JUDGE: Urban Word Grand Slam Final 2014, New York State Youth Poet Laureate 2014, Urban Word Grand Slam Semifinals 2013