Mario José Pagán Morales is a Nuyorican poet, voice-over actor, spoken word artist, and cultural worker, born in Ponce Puerto Rico, and raised in the South Bronx.
His poetry has been featured in several anthologies, including The BreakBeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Books, 2020), Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea (Great Weather for MEDIA, 2019), and the 2019 “The Performance of Breath” edition of The Acentos Review (edited by Peggy Robles-Alvarado and Lupe Méndez). His work is also included in The Latino Book Review Magazine (2023) Shape Produced by a Curve (Great Weather for Media, 2023) and the Brownstone Poets 2023 Anthology.
Pagán Morales is a two-time Pushcart nominee and has received multiple accolades, including the Warlock International News 2022 Poet of the Year and the Areito Taino Awards 2023 Poet of the Year. He was awarded 2023 Silver Medal for The Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award (Bilingual) for his debuted collection of Poetry: Receta (GWFM 2019) and Best Video Presentation for (Origine story) 2023 International Latino Awards.
He has featured at venues such as Capicu Culture, Medicina for Pesadillas, La Palabra Musical, La Tertulia Boricua, The Loisaida Center, Comcast’s Hispanic Heritage Month: Nuestra Cultura Escrita, La Casita at Lincoln Center, and the Nuyorican Poets Café, among others. He participated in No Small Voices: On This Bridge and A&E’s Hispanic Heritage Month Reading.
Pagán Morales is a founding member of Títere Poet and co-founder of the La Esquina Poetry Series. He resides in the Boggie Down.
