Nancy Mercado is the recipient of the 2017 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. She was named among the Frederick Douglass 200 on the bicentennial of Douglass' birth. She also received the Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Award from the Association for Equality and Excellence in Education, the Carmen Vega Rivera Advocacy Award from Latina 50 Plus, the Newark Public Library Hispanic Research and Information Center Award, the Rutgers University Centre for Latino Arts and Culture Award, was named an Honorary Madrina of El Museo del Barrio in New York City, and was presented with a Citation from the Manhattan Borough President's Office for Artistic Work. Mercado serves as a board member for The Before Columbus Foundation, an assistant editor for EcoPoetry.org, and a guest curator for the Museum of American Poetics.
During the height of the COVID pandemic in December 2020, Mercado established, and chaired the MiguelabrationCommittee; an organizing vehicle created to pay tribute to the founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Miguel Algarín. The committee successfully organized and held a groundbreaking social media event featuring poets and artists from around the world via Zoom. Ten New York City premiere arts organizations, including City Lore and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, joined forces to simultaneously broadcast the six-hour social media mega event live.
Mercado has presented her work throughout the US and abroad for institutions including but not limited to, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum, the University of Nantes, France, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP), The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival and in Havana, Cuba where she was invited by poet Roberto Fernandez Retamar to present her work at Casa de las Americas cultural institute. Mercado has also appeared in other premiere venues throughout New York City such as The Public Theatre, Town Hall, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Symphony Space among others.
She also worked for eleven years as an editor of the acclaimed underground literary and art publication Long Shot serving as the journal’s editor-in-chief for one of those years. She is the author of: It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot Productions), Las Tres Hermanas (Casita Maria), and the editor of if the world were mine (ASPIRA, International Youth Organization, The Leaguers Inc., The Newark Housing Authority, and FOCUS). Her poetry, fiction, and essay writings have been extensively anthologized.
Nancy Mercado is the editor of the first Nuyorican Women Writers Anthology in two volumes originally published in Voices e/Magazine, a Hunter College CUNY online literary journal. She edited two special memorial tributes celebrating the life of Miguel Algarín, founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in virtual publications: KONCH Magazine, and Tribes Magazine.
Her theatre and playwriting career includes working for ten years as the Artistic Director of the Young Life Theatre Group; a young adult theatre group based in New Jersey and funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. During this time she authored and directed seven theatre plays: Palm Trees in the Snow, Chillin, Forever Earth, It is I Stay Alive!, Planet Earth, Alicia in Projectland (coauthored with the renowned writer, Pedro Pietri), and AWAY. Her plays have been produced in such venues as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). AWAY was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of an AIDS awareness and prevention campaign for young women of color. Made accessible to any theatre company or community group in the US, it has been produced by various theatre companies and community groups in English and Spanish throughout the country and in Puerto Rico.
Mercado has been featured on National Public Radio's: All of it, The Talk of the Nation, and on the PBS NewsHour Special, America Remembers 9/11. She was also featured on NYCNext, a program providing a series of live artistic popup events throughout New York City during the COVID pandemic, and was commissioned to read a poem about New York City for their series Love Letter to New York. Profiled in Latino Leaders Magazine, the publication declared her, one of the most celebrated members of the Puerto Rican literary movement in the Big Apple
Nancy Mercado continues to present her work as a featured poet and conference panelist. She received her PhD from Binghamton University, SUNY, and is currently an Associate Professor in New York City.
