Chocolate Waters

Chocolate Waters has been writing and publishing poetry for over four decades. During the second wave of feminism she was one of the first openly lesbian poets to publish and her contribution has been documented in Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975 (U of Il. Press, Barbara Love, Ed.). Her first three collections: To the man reporter from the Denver Post, Take Me Like A Photograph and Charting New Waters are considered classics of the early women's movement.

In addition to her work as a writer, Waters was also a founder of the early feminist newspaper, Big Mama Rag, which was produced in Denver, Colorado from 1972-1982.

She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in Poetry, a fellowship from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and in 2006 was awarded a "fruitie" for the best poetry performance in the Fresh Fruit Festival held in Manhattan.

Her poetry, which has won many individual awards in addition to being nominated for several Pushcart prizes, is widely published and anthologized. Currently hailed as the "Poet Laureate of Hell's Kitchen," Waters is also a pioneer in the art of performance poetry. She has toured throughout the United States, but makes her home in Manhattan where she teaches poetry workshops, runs a submission service for serious poets, tutors individual clients and is often a participant in the New York City poetry circuit.