Staceyann Chin is a poet, activist, and entertainer attempting to bridge the divide between African Americans and the Caribbean, between Africa and its fragile connection to its Diaspora, while residing in the United States.

She began at the Nuyorican Poets' Café and did solo shows Off-Broadway. She moved on to become a co-writer and performer in Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and on HBO. She has hosted writing-workshops in Sweden, South Africa, and Australia, and has been featured by radio stations and theatres around the world.

She is the author of The Other Side of Paradise, Crossfire: A Litany for Survival, and MotherStruck!, Chin’s true story of being a single lesbian and her quest to become a mother without the help of a partner or her family. MotherStruck was directed by Cynthia Nixon and produced by Rosie O’Donnell,

Chin studied with Derek Walcott, the 1992 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, at Boston University, but left his class after he told her to stop writing about  feminist issues.