Denice Frohman

Denice Frohman is a poet and performer from New York City. Frohman is a Pew Fellow and Baldwin-Emerson Fellow, and has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, CantoMundo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, Leeway Foundation, Blue Mountain Center, and Millay Colony. She is a former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion. Frohman has performed on national and international stages, including The Apollo and The White House. Her poetry examines language, lineage, queerness, and the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. As a queer Nuyorican, she is the daughter of Puerto Rican and Jewish parents. Frohman played professional basketball in Puerto Rico after college, where she earned a four-year athletic scholarship, and holds a master’s degree in education from Drexel University.

Frohman’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Poem-A-Day, The Rumpus, ESPNW, The Acentos Review, The Adroit Journal, Kweli Journal, and Split This Rock's The Quarry. Videos of her poetry performances have collectively garnered more than 10 million views online. She has been featured in Elle Magazine, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, AutoStraddle, and Upworthy, and has appeared on and co-hosted an episode of NPR’s "Code Switch" podcast.

Her poetry has been commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ESPN, Indeed, mitú, the City of Philadelphia, GALAEI, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Affairs, and Twitter as part of the #HereWeAre campaign to uplift women's voices, which aired during the Oscars on national television. Frohman has written creative content for major brands, collaborated with arts organizations, and worked with grassroots nonprofits on social justice campaigns. Her collaboration with TED produced an award-winning animated video of "Accents," which won first place at the Annecy International Animation Festival.

As a facilitator, Frohman has led workshops for adults and young people at The Watering Hole Retreat, Intercultural Journeys, Girls Leadership Institute, Youth Study Juvenile Detention Center, and at numerous schools and organizations. As a former program director at The Philly Youth Poetry Movement, she worked to create safe spaces for Philadelphia teens to discover the power of their voices. Frohman’s commitment to mentoring young people, especially LGBT youth and youth of color, is a central part of her work. Along with a collective of Puerto Rican writers including Willie Perdomo and Noel Quiñones, she co-organized #PoetsforPuertoRico, a series of benefit readings across cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Newark to raise funds and awareness in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. She lives in Philadelphia.