About Amy

Only ten squares from where I first began,
in love with starting, the rush of the gate,
I try to strengthen my native wingspan
taking humble steps in Kings county’s grace.

Obsessed by the pen, afraid of its ink,
its powers escalating my story.
To write? To teach? To do? To change? To think?
To be is a never ending foray

In rapture with rapture, in hope of hope
in search of a modicum of meaning
writhing and searching, avoiding all tropes
seeking the stability of reason.

I would like to live each day unashamed
as if it were, all the time that remained.

Amy grew up in Brooklyn and attended its public schools. Now she is a poet, a teacher and an assistant principal at The Urban Assembly Unison School (which she founded in 2012). Previous publications and writing accolades include:

Vox – “I’m a New York City school administrator. Here’s how segregation lives on.” (February 2016)
Ragdale – Writer in Residence (August 2011)
Prescribed Burn. Printing preview – crowd-sourced funding on kickstarter.com (Winter 2010)
Bellowing Arc – “Fall Morning in Prospect Park” & “Curious” (Volume 26, No. 6 – Nov/Dec 2010)
Atlantic Pacific Press Quarterly – Published selection of 4 poems (Summer 2010)
Acentos Fellowship – Invitational 10-week program with Rich Villar, Martin Espada (Spring 2010)
Becoming Morning – Thesis Chapbook, reviewed by Michael S. Harper & Gale Nelson (Spring 2007)
Edward F. Albee Fellowship – Writer in Residence (July 2006)