July FOTM- Samuel Miranda

Samuel "Sami" Miranda grew up in the South Bronx and resides in Washington, DC. He is a visual artist, poet, filmmaker and high school teacher. For over three decades Sami Miranda has focused on story telling through multiple media. First through his poetry and visual art and in the past five years through combining poetry and film to tell stories that help provide space for people’s names to be spoken, for their stories to be told and remembered. Films he co-produced and co-directed, "Hiding Place", "Desert Poems", “Jesus” and "Spanish Joe Remembers" have been included in film festivals in DC, Berlin, the Netherlands, Madrid, Houston, Bethesda, Seattle and Milwaukee. He is currently working on film projects that focus on DC stories and migration stories. He is the author of Protection from Erasure, published by Jaded Ibis Press, Departure, a chapbook published by Central Square Press, and We Is, published by Zozobra Publishing and his book Rewarding the Unhurried is forthcoming from Flowersong Press. He is currently working on collaborative projects with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers. He has performed his poetry and facilitated poetry workshops throughout the US, St. Maarten, Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Madrid. Samuel's artwork has been exhibited internationally in Puerto Rico and Madrid, as well as New York and Washington, DC. Most recently, his work was in the Smithsonian's new Molina Family Latino Gallery inaugural exhibition ¡Presente! and has been included in university and private collections. Films he co-produced and co-directed, "Hiding Place", "Desert Poems", “Jesus” and "Spanish Joe Remembers" have been included in film festivals in DC, Berlin, the Netherlands, Madrid, Houston, Bethesda, Seattle and Milwaukee. Sami Miranda also manages programming for the American Poetry Museum and serves as its Executive Director.