Bonafide Rojas is a Bronx born-and-raised musician and Nuyorican poet authoring five poetry collections, most recently, EXCELSIOR (2024) and Notes on the Return to the Island (2017) both from Grand Concourse Press. He is the 2002 "slam this!" champion and has performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam as well as in numerous venues in New York City and internationally. His writing appears in journals and anthologies including Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Three Rivers Press, 2001) and Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black Literature & Art (Third World Press, 2002). In 2012, he founded Grand Concourse Press, named after the thoroughfare he grew up on. He is founder and leader of the rock group Mona Passage. Rojas lives in New York City and travels frequently to Puerto Rico, where he lectures on poetry to inspire the next generation of Nuyorican poets.
