SSF 2019 Featured Poet Angie Lopez

Angie Lopez is an 18-year old spoken word artist currently attending Coral Gables Senior High School. She is the proud Editor in Chief of the school’s Literary Magazine, Catharsis, and is a passionate Piano Slam Alumnus. Her writing deals with the themes of heritage, identity, gender, and social issues affecting minority and youth voices. She believes spoken word more than any other medium serves as a bridge connecting people both to their own voices and to the narratives of others due to the medium’s intrinsic vulnerability. She aims to continue writing and in doing so continue to connect with other members of the artistic community in Miami and abroad.
IG: @angielopezwrites

Deborah Magdalena

Whether she's hosting a spoken word event, music festival, or playing the role of a santera or vixen, Deborah Magdalena makes every emotion super real. This performance artist has acquired impressive TV & Film credits for the past twenty years including Sesame Street (CTW), Apollo Comedy Hour (Tribune Entertainment), Safe Harbor (Warner Brothers), Striptease (Castle Rock), Holyman (Caravan), and For Love or Country (HBO). As a published spoken word artist Deborah has released three CDs, a chapbook, and the spoken word musical FUNKdalena. As an artist-activist she’s the founder of Spoken Soul Festival, a twelve year old, three-day festival that helps women artists go from novice to professionals. As an educator Deborah for the past eight years has led in-school presentations in numerous high schools for the National YoungArts Foundation, is the co-founder of Piano Slam, and led various workshops for local art organizations like Miami Light Project and Institute of Contemporary Art Miami. Most recently and for the seventh year in a row, she was invited by the Arsht Center and Ailey Arts & Education Foundation to serve as the Creative Communication instructor for Ailey Camp Miami.