About

Melania Luisa Marte is an American writer, poet, and musician from New York living between Dallas and The Dominican Republic. Marte's poetry explores her Caribbean roots, intersectionality, and self-love. Her most viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over 9 million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, Mitu, The Root, Teen Vogue, Facebook, Telemundo, Remezcla, Pop Sugar, AfroPunk, and People En Español.

“It´s the warm scent of manteca. The rising steam of cafecito, for me.

How we hum origin songs and praise the rain.

Here, we drink agua fresca and morir soñando.

We watch youth baseball games and play sunday dominoes.”

Melania’s won two Audie awards for her most recent voice-over work co-narrating novel-in-verse, CLAP WHEN YOU LAND by National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo. Marte’s latest commissioned work includes a commercial poem for McDonald’s ‘Hacer Mas’ scholarship campaign as well as starring in and writing a unique poem for Facebook’s 2020 Heritage Month celebration. Melania co-wrote and starred in Instagram´s Somos Limitless campaign and last year she had the honor of performing for the White House´s Virtual Celebration of Afro-Latino Heritage.

“We know Earth like we know survival.”

For Melania, music has become “another fountain of endless poetry to unravel the spirit.” As a seasoned writer, she has challenged herself to expand past any limitations and explore the dynamic creativity of her artistic projects. Marte´s current writing project is exploring Black preservation through land cultivation, herbal-ism, and naps as a bridge to connect to ancestral knowledge.

Marte´s debut collection of poetry, PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING will be published by Tiny Reparations, an imprint of Plume and Penguin Random House Summer 2023. She is also currently working on a poetic musical project to be released next year. You can follow her journey on social media: @MelaTocaTierra.