Writing Afrofuturism: An Afro Queer Arts Project in Puerto Rico

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro is a Puerto Rican writer. She’s published books that promote the discussion of Afroidentity and sexual diversity. She is the Director of the Department of AfroPuertoRican Studies, a performative project of Creative Writing based at the Casa Museo Ashford in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and is also the founder and chair of Ancestral Black Women, in response to the call by UNESCO to celebrate the International Decade for People of African Descent. She was invited by the UN to speak about women, slavery and creativity in 2015 as part of the Remembering Slavery Program.

Her short story collection Las negras, winner of the 2013 National Short Story Prize from the PEN Club of Puerto Rico, explores the limits of the development of female characters who challenge hierarchies of power. Caparazones, Lesbofilias and Violeta are some of her works which explore transgression from an openly visible lesbianism. She has also won the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Prize in 2012 and 2015, and the National Award from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture in 2008. Her work has been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Portuguese.

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