Malcolm Friend

Poet, Performer, Educator

Anthologized Work

“Failed Bomba” and “Ode To Tego Calderón, or The Day El abayarde Dropped Was Maelo’s Resurrection,” The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT, ed. by Felicia Rose Chavez, José Olivarez, and Willie Perdomo (Haymarket Books, 2020)

“Four-Dollar Mofongo, or On Having to Explain Why Puerto Rico Uses American Dollars” and “America,” Boricua en la Luna, ed. by Elena Aponte (Blurb Books, 2019)

“Static, After Getting Stopped by the Cops” and “Static’s Elegy for Black Bodies,” Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch the Sky, ed. by Tony Medina (Jacar Press, 2016)

Selected Poetry and Prose

Poems:

“Diasporican Interview from the Moon” and “Love Poem, Prefaced with an Ode to Tostones,” Blackbird, Volume 22, Issue 1, December 2022

“Diasporican Interview on the Question of Race,” “Dispersion Theory on Riddim and Flow,” and “A Reconsideration of Latinidad, Ending on a Lyric by El Conde,” Kweli Journal, March 2022 (Guest Edited by Ivelisse Rodriguez)

“Ode To Paper Transfers",” West Branch, Document(s) feature edited by Laura Villareal, Spring/Summer 2021

“Don Omar and Tego Calderón Sing Maelo Live To Each Other on Stage - El Choliseo, 2004,” Digging Press Poetry Series, April 2021

“Diasporican Interview feat. René Marqués” and “Nocturne: Downtown to West Seattle,” A Gathering of Tribes, April 2021

“Diasporican Interview feat. Manuel Fernández Juncos, Rafael Hernández, & Don Omar” and "Diasporican School of Poetry," Redivider, Volume 18, Issue 1, January 2021

“When You Tell Me the Next Emperor Will Be Kinder, I Remember,” Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Poets Resist: 2020 Election Special Feature, November 2020

"El Conde Sings 'Babaila,'" The Acentos Review, Black and Glorious: Towards Black Liberation Special Issue, June 2020

“Portrait of My Dad as a Vejigante“ and “Portrait of the Author in Plátano Heaven,” Cosmonauts Ave, February 2020

“I Promised Myself I Would Never Become the Person Who Refers To His Rabbits as Children,” “The Day María Touches Down I Listen To Plena Libre’s ‘Huracán’,” and “Ode To Justin Bieber, Ending on Presidential Jumpshots,” Pretty Owl Poetry, Winter 2020

“Puerto Rico: An Etymology” and “Remake: West Side Story,” Tinderbox Poetry Journal, December 2018

“The Day María Touches Down I Listen To Cheo Feliciano Sing ‘La Borinqueña,’” Kweli Journal #PoetsForPuertoRico Special Issue, October 2018

“Ode To Zion & Lennox in Which I Consider My Dad Otra vez, Ending on a Lyric by Cheo Feliciano,” Juked, October 2018

"Fried," Crab Fat Magazine, January 2018

"Orpheus as El incomprendido," Breakwater Review, Issue 20, Fall 2017

"Because Mom Doesn't Sing Every Song by The Temptations," The Boiler Journal, Summer 2017

"malcolm meets tite curet alonso at hemingway's café, pittsburgh," Label Me Latina/o, Volume VII Special Issue: Black and Latin@: Conceptualizing Afro-Latinidad in Afro-Latina/o Literature and Performance, Summer 2017

"Afro-Seattleite Fragment #21: Jamal Crawford, or Ode To the Crossover," Seattle Poetic Grid, Curated by Claudia Castro-Luna, June 2017

"Ode To Prince, or The Day Prince Dies I'm Reminded I Don't Call Home Enough," Perigee by Apogee Journal, June 2017

"Bomba-Blues Dream Sequence," "Bomba-Blues Noise Report," and "The Bomba Man and The Blues Man Argue over Who Has to Bury Malcolm's Body," Winter Tangerine Review, Lineage of Mirrors, April 2017

"Prayer as Don Omar," The Rupture, Issue 89, February 2017

Three Poems, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, January 2017

Five Poems, Maps for Teeth, Issue 4, Winter 2016

"Afro-Seattleite Fragment #19: Ode To Gabriel Teodros, or Mixed Kid Learns to Sing," IDK magazine, Issue 03, December 2016

"Afro-Seattleite Fragment #2: Richard Sherman" and "Afro-Seattleite Fragment #6: Prayer in the Mode of Sir Mix-a-Lot's 'Posse on Broadway,' or South End Kid Returns To Capitol Hill Six Years after Graduating High School," Kweli Journal, November 2016

"On Being Told I Look Like the Rapper J. Cole, or List of Black People I Apparently Look Like, or Do All Black People Look Alike?", Crab Creek Review, Fall 2016

Three Poems, Vinyl,  September 2016

Two Poems and an Interview, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, Issue VI, Volume VII (July 2016)

"Ode To the Barbershop," Backbone Press, 2016 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize Winner

Two Poems, Ghost Town Literary Magazine, Issue 8, Fall 2015

"The Bomba Man and The Blues Man walk into a bar," Nashville Review, Issue 17, Summer 2015

"Cornbread," Apeiron Review, Issue 9, Summer 2015

Two Poems, The Acentos Review, May 2015

"Four-Dollar Mofongo, or On Having to Explain Why Puerto Rico Uses American Dollars," CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, Issue 15, Spring 2015

Poems, Moko, Issue 5, March 2015

"Afro-Seattleite Fragment #9: Ode To Rainier Beach," StepAway Magazine, Issue 16, March 2015

"Afro-Seattleite Fragment #15: Jimi Hendrix Plays 'The Star Spangled Banner' - Woodstock, 1969," Pacifica Literary Review (Online), March 2015

"Rice and Beans," Profiles by The Vanderbilt Review, Fall 2013

Prose:

“Gary Payton Once Told a Fan in Sacramento to Get on His Tractor and Go Home,” and “For a Brief Moment in Time, The Best Shooter in the NBA was a Seattle SuperSonic,” HeadFake Quarterly Vol. 1, January 2021

"A Song to Rejoice: on My Fascination with Odes," Bird's Thumb, "Write Here, Write Now" Blog Series, May 2017

"¡Que te cante—yo tambien!: A Tribute To Tato Laviera," Winter Tangerine Review, Lineage of Mirrors, April 2017

"28 Days Later and Other Nightmares: On What Frightens Us," Kenyon Review (Reflections on fear curated by Rosebud Ben-Oni