Stand Clear of the Closing Doors 2013

 

Andrea Santana is the creator and producer of Stand Clear of the Closing Doors 2013 and the founder of SpokenWordKilledthePoet Productions. She is a 22 year old Puerto Rican from the Bronx. Santana is a full time student at Mercy College in the BX where she is majoring in Psychology. Her main inspiration for writing stems from her life experiences. At an early age, she lost her uncle Tito to AIDS and about three years later, her uncle Henry committed suicide. There was never any filter in her life. Santana saw it for what it was and understood then and there that it wasn’t all her childhood fairy tales told her it was going to be.

"I had to be around six at that time and all I was told was to stay strong for my mother, my grandmother and my family,” said Santana. “I didn’t cry, I couldn’t  so I picked up my notebook and began writing.”

When she was eight years old, she came out to her family and in doing so she says that her words took on a completely different meaning/ purpose.

"At the age of 15, I was gay bashed for the first time and I can stand here today with a smile on my face and tell you that it has always been my words that have saved me.”

Santana has been performing Spoken Word poetry for the past three years under the name PoeticallyKnownas Case. She mainly performs at Babble in the Bronx, which is a once a month Open Mic in the Bronx.