Marlana-Patrice Pugh Hamer

Marlana-Patrice Pugh Hamer Bio (pronounced “Marlayna-Patreece Pew Haymer”)

Marlana-Patrice considers herself primarily a poet and a performer. She loves writing and reading daily. Then hitting the mic at some of her favorite places like HomeBase and Infuse Open Mic. She also loves to perform at community events. For example, she has to date been the featured poet at six different MLK Day events throughout the valley. In 2023, her biggest audience as a feature was at the Annual Go Red for Women Phoenix event held in Scottsdale. Over 600 attendees heard her perform her original "May the Fierce Be with Us" poem she created especially for the event. Her poetry covers a wide variety of topics from the humorous to the very serious. She loves to create tribute poems that suit a wide variety of occasions. To hone her craft, she loves to create haikus regularly. Besides being a poet and a performer, Marlana-Patrice Pugh Hamer is an author, a writer, an actress, a public speaker, a photographer, and an educator who currently resides in the Phoenix metropolitan area. She started writing poetry at the age of nine. This Cleveland, Ohio native always excelled in school. Once strongly considering becoming a professional actress, she decided to earn a B.A. in English (John Carroll University, cum laude) in order to become a full-time teacher. She also has an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (Indiana Wesleyan University).

For many years, she taught secondary English and reading in the Cleveland Metropolitan schools. On the college level, she taught English Composition.

As a lifelong learner, she took classes at the legendary Karamu House (Cleveland, OH). One of her most memorable teachers was poet Russell Atkins, friend of Langston Hughes. The latter she considers her hometown muse. In fact, Langston Hughes' creative beginnings can be traced back to Karamu House.

Marlana considers Gwendolyn Brooks her female poet muse. As an undergraduate, she met Mrs. Brooks after she lectured at John Carroll University. Her talk was about "Poetry is Life Distilled" which left a very lasting impression upon the younger burgeoning poet. Other poets who have strongly influenced Marlana are the following: Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, James C. Kilgore, Toi Derricotte, and David Mura. The latter two were her mentors while she attended the Imagination Writing Conference (Cleveland State University).

Throughout the years, Marlana has won honors and awards. For academics and for creative pursuits. She won First Place in the District 10 Humorous Speech Contest, Toastmasters International, Inc. (Northeast Ohio, 1994). Second Place in the Annual Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest (Cleveland, 2008).

She is a published poet and writer who has contributed to various anthologies. For instance, one of her most recent poems appears in Dimepiece: Ten Years of CLI Poetry (CLI Books, 2023). Her debut poetry book, Taking Off My Black & White Saddle Shoes: Cleveland Poems will be released in May, 2024 (World Stage Press). It is her memoir in verse.

Marlana believes that poets and writers should be social activists. She is currently involved with Mission for Arizona and Save Our Schools Arizona. Marlana is also a Project Humanities 101 Founder (ASU); she firmly supports PH homeless outreach work and its other community programs.