Rich Villar is a poet, educator, curator, and cultural worker. He is the author of Comprending Forever (Willow Books, 2014) and his poems are anthologized most recently in What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Curbstone/Northwestern University Press, 2019), and The BreakBeat Poets, Volume 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Books, 2020). From 2003-2012, he led the Acentos Poetry Showcase and the Acentos Writers Workshops, both based in the Bronx. He is the founder of La Cocina, an interactive event series and grassroots initiative fostering Latinx art, culture, and community. Rich resides in the Bronx and is a Program Coordinator for the NYU Prison Education Program.