Clara is a poet, singer, spoken word performer, and educator. She holds a BA in creative writing from the City University of New York, from which she graduated magna cum laude.

Clara’s exquisitely honed images cut into the boundary areas of race, gender, and identity to expose the larger issues of our diverse shared humanity, and the choices we make in this harsh, transformative era. Fusing strong acting ability with a naked emotional stage presence, Clara delivers a spoken word performance of searing grace and power. She has shared her work in venues from Lincoln Center to the Bowery Poetry Club, and has performed at numerous colleges, including Vassar College, New York University, George Washington University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Columbia University, among others.

Clara has performed as a member of the alternative rock/hip-hop/spoken word group Fight Apathy, which promotes HIV awareness and education to college students, hosting a live show, then leading writing workshops with students after the show. She has performed her solo show of a woman’s journey for International Aids Day, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has appeared on WBAI radio numerous times, including “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman, and “Rise UP” Radio, a radio show for teens. She has shared the stage with Suheir Hammad, Sarah Jones, Regie Cabico, and Carlos Andres Gomez.

Clara is a recipient of the 2003 New York Foundation of the Arts Grant in Poetry, as well as two PEN American Center Grants for Writers and Editors with AIDS. Her work has been published in A Gathering of the Tribes, A&U magazine, Mudfish, Rattapallax, and Lapiz magazine, and in Empty Shoes, an anthology of poems about the homeless. Her poetry will be featured in the soon-to-be -published second Nuyorican Anthology.

Clara has taught poetry and hip-hop lyric writing in public schools, libraries, homeless shelters, AIDS clinics, and senior centers throughout New York City. She works for Teachers & Writers Collaborative and for Poets & Writers, and has been Poet’s House most requested poetry teacher for teens.

She honors the work that comes through her as a service and an offering, from divinity to divinity.