Brenda Vaca is a Xicana writer and poet whose 2021 debut collection, Riot of Roses, is also the name of the Whittier, California-based independent publishing house she founded to amplify the stories of historically silenced Latinx voices. She hosts the weekly Instagram live series Friday Fire and is the monthly co-host of The Post Up open mic at Uptown Plants Casa Verde LA in Whittier. She earned her B.A. in English and an M.A. in Divinity from U.C. Berkeley as well as an M.A. in Biblical Languages from the Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union. She served for ten years as an ordained Elder working primarily in Latinx communities with the United Methodist Church.
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