Mayda del Valle

Mayda del Valle is an American slam poet and Broadway performer who was raised on Chicago's South Side. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents — her mother Carmen, a homemaker, and her father Alejandro, a forklift operator — del Valle began her performance career at the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, where she first competed in slam poetry.

Her early competition work yielded significant recognition. In 2001, del Valle claimed both the Nuyorican Grand Slam Championship and the National Slam Poet individual title. That same competitive period launched a sustained relationship with Def Poetry Jam, for which she served as a writer across four seasons.

Del Valle's Broadway career began in 2002, when she appeared as a cast member in Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. Her work on the production extended her role beyond performance, as she had already contributed to the project as a writer before its stage incarnation.

Her profile extended into print and broadcast media. The New York Times and Latina magazine both featured del Valle, and Oprah Winfrey's O, The Oprah Magazine included her on the publication's inaugural "O Power List," which recognized twenty women selected for that distinction. In May 2009, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited del Valle to perform at the White House's Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word. The following year, she served as a judge on the HBO television film of the 2010 Brave New Voices slam poetry competition.