Register for María Fernanda’s latest events and experiences.

You can listen to her speak in Moscow at The American Center, here. It is spoken in English with Russian subtitles.

Poetry Winter Market: The Time is Water

Join The American Poetry Museum for María Fernanda’s unique organizing of a holiday market featuring stationary, notebooks, poetry books, performances, creative activations and more!

Saturday

January 31 at 2:00pm

Walk-in


Poetry & Presence Lecture Series: Angeley “LaNegraSpeaks” Gibb

Join The American Poetry Museum for the second lecture, part of María Fernanda’s three-part lecture series celebrating poetic thought and the communities that shape it. Q&A to follow. 

Saturday

January 31 at 6:00pm

Walk-in


The Hour

Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at our newest poet mic series created by award-winning poet María Fernanda. María Fernanda curates a book list for audiences and the event is open to all.

First Thursdays of the Month

February 5

7:00pm


Freedom and Resistance: Left is Our Language

In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month, the DC Public Library presents Freedom and Resistance: An Exhibition Inspired by The 1619 Project. The exhibition features three sections, created in collaboration with the editors of The New York Times Magazine and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and educators from The Pulitzer Center.

Wednesday

March 11

6:30pm


Previous Experiences

  • DMV Made Festival at The National Mall & Memorial Parks

  • Brookings Institution

  • Black Girls in Art Spaces x The National Museum of Women in the Arts

  • A Tribute to Nikki Giovanni: This Is Your Poem produced by María Fernanda at Politics and Prose

  • The American Center in Moscow — Listen here.

  • DPR Jazz in the Park

  • Poetry Field Trip

  • Rosemary’s House

  • Making Home crafted by María Fernanda at Salt & Sundry


Slate

Ongoing Programming by María Fernanda

Join Black poets and gardeners as they discuss their creative and historic connections to the gardens in our communities.

In 2024, featured discussions centered on the Trinidad, Anacostia, and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. In 2025, the series launched in Georgetown Heights in collaboration with the DC Preservation League.

a poetry garden series

Explore the series

The Hour series

Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at Politics and Prose’s newest free open mic series, created and hosted by María Fernanda! She believes that Poetry, like us, exists in many forms—spoken word, blues, performance/theatre, hip-hop, and more. Bring poems, songs, raps, monologues, positive affirmations and more!

Explore the series

These one-hour collective experiences explore various poetic forms and supports writers with their revision practice beyond the wide-recognized workshop style.

Let’s Write Poetry Saturdays

Explore the series

Poetry & Presence series

Join The American Poetry Museum for María Fernanda’s three-part lecture series celebrating poetic thought and our communities that shape it. Q&A to follow each.


All Events

Featured — BGIAS: Black Girls Writers Room (DMV) @ NMWA

a black girls’ poetry workshop

national museum of women in the arts

Explore generations of language in this free poetry workshop with award-winning poet María Fernanda, from DC, who invites participants to learn how to write a contrapuntal poem, a form blending two or more poems and read in multiple ways. Generative writing exercises will be inspired by excerpts of poems, in-library literary archives, and other sources. Participants will consider the many histories of a word, a name, a home, and so much more. This is for first-time writers and poetry enthusiasts alike. Note: Participants will create in-workshop poems and use them to blend; no need to bring poems already written.

Details at Black Girls in Art Spaces.

Review of event here.