Early years
Shaggy Flores, was born and raised in Spanish Harlem, New York City, as well as in Puerto Rico and Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his primary and secondary education in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts. As a child, growing up in Robinson Gardens Housing Projects, he was heavily exposed to the work of the early Nuyorican poets, his mother being a poet herself. Later in junior high and high school, he showed a proficiency for writing and for creating short stories that depicted the Puerto Rican experience. He graduated from the High School of Commerce and eventually met a recruiter for the University of Massachusetts Amherst (BCP Program) who helped him continue his studies.
During the early nineties, he was heavily involved with student politics at the University of Massachusetts, resurrecting old student organizations and creating new ones in the process. It was during this period that his work as a Nuyorican poet became known and he began to find elder Nuyorican poets who could serve as mentors.
He completed his education at the University of Massachusetts with a degree in the African Diaspora. He also, along with student organizers from La Causa of Amherst College, created the annual Voices for the Voiceless poetry concert, which takes place every December at Amherst College. Voices are one of the largest Diaspora poetry concerts in the Northeast, bringing nationally established ALANA and LGBTQ writers to the five-college community for one night of poetry. It was at this event that he established the Louis Reyes Rivera lifetime achievement award to honor legendary artists.
Early Debut
Shaggy Flores made his early poetry debut by performing his work at the first North East Latino Student Conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in the early nineties then later for a series of events produced by the Puerto Rican Student organization. He was a member of the Umass poetry society and traveled frequently to New York to perform at events such as the annual Muévete Conference held at Hostos Community College and later at the National Poetry Slam held in Providence, RI.
Early readings would include performances at the Nuyorican Poets Café, Columbia University, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Springfield College, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and for a poetry troupe created by Louis Reyes Rivera and Felipe Luciano call the Wordquestra in New York City. He would later get to meet and perform with many of the early Nuyorican writers who inspired him to become a writer.
His poems and interview have been published in journals, books, websites, and anthologies.
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