Bles Chavez Bernstein

Bles was born in the Philippines and migrated to the US after her parents insisted that she become a nurse so she could work abroad and help send her siblings to college. After high school she told her father that she wanted to be an art major and a writer but he angrily said to her, "You're going to have an empty stomach if you do that! Those courses are only for the rich."

Although unable to keep on writing lyrics and sonnets as she did as a young girl, she managed to keep her desire lit despite working full time as a nurse and raising three children. Twenty-five years later she has rediscovered her path and published her first collection of poetry, Without Rhyme.

Bles has received years of training in classical singing at the Performer’s Music Institute in Miami, Florida. In 2002, the New World School of the Arts in Miami awarded Bles a scholarship in music, majoring in vocal performance. In the last eighteen years, proceeds from her performances have supported advocacies for women and children worldwide.

Bles has also devoted many years in the art and vocation of nursing, working as a registered nurse in the U.S. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and has extensive experience, both as a bedside clinician and director of nursing, in two clinical specialties: mental health and addictions nursing.

Currently she is working on her second collection of poetry, The Sensuous Healer.