Rich Villar

Rich Villar is a poet, essayist, curator, and community educator originally from Paterson, New Jersey. Moving within the fields of healing, peer navigation, and social services, Rich is a cultural worker in the Nuyorican tradition, following a path set forth by activist educators from Pura Belpre to Luis Garden Acosta, carrying forward a belief in storytelling as a tool of liberation. He has been quoted on Latinx literature and culture by HBO and The New York Times, and his work is most recently anthologized in What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press, 2019). His debut collection, Comprehending Forever (2014), was an Editor’s Choice selection from Willow Books/Aquarius Press. Rich earned his BA in political science from Montclair State University, and he looks forward to connecting PEP students (and their families) to the resources needed to sustain their lives after incarceration.