Meet the Artist
True Rodriguez is an Afro-Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist and storyteller born and raised in Queens, New York. Rooted in the cultural richness of New York City and the African diaspora, her work explores identity, heritage, womanhood, and the complexities of the human experience. Through poetry, theater, painting, and digital art, she has spent much of her creative life challenging preconceived notions, disrupting silence, and celebrating the beautifully imperfect ways we exist in the world.
A veteran of New York City's poetry scene, True was a founding member of the award-winning Latino poetry collective El Grito de Poetas. Her poetry has graced stages including the Apollo Theater, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and the Bowery Poetry Club. She is the author of two collections, Where Do I Begin? and Climbing Ivy, and the writer and producer of In Defense of Glitter and Rainbows, a theatrical production that enjoyed a four-year run of sold-out Off-Broadway performances.
Beyond the stage, True has spent much of her creative career using storytelling as a vehicle for connection and community advocacy. Through performance, workshops, and cultural programming, she has encouraged vulnerability, challenged societal expectations, and created spaces for voices and experiences too often left unheard.
Her creative evolution eventually led her from acrylic painting and mixed media to digital art, where she continues to explore the intersections of culture, identity, and representation. Drawing inspiration from hip-hop, Afro-diasporic traditions, and the lives of Black and Brown women, her work centers stories that celebrate cultural complexity while challenging the shame, stereotypes, and expectations imposed upon marginalized communities.
For True, art begins with curiosity. Rather than offering definitive answers, she uses her work to question inherited beliefs, examine uncomfortable truths, and invite audiences into conversations that extend beyond the artwork itself. She believes that beauty and discomfort can coexist, that imperfections deserve acknowledgment rather than shame, and that storytelling has the power to make people feel seen.
Today, through her creative business, Madre Roja, True continues her lifelong commitment to reaching people through art. Whether a piece inspires reflection, sparks a conversation, evokes a familiar memory, or simply brings beauty into someone's home, she believes each connection has value.
At the heart of her work is a simple desire: to create something that feels like home- not necessarily peaceful or perfect, but familiar, complicated, and always evolving.
Artist Statement
I believe shame thrives in silence.
We inherit shame in countless ways; through our families, our communities, our histories, and the expectations society places upon us. Racism, classism, and sexism have taught generations of people, particularly within Black and Brown communities, that acceptance comes through respectability, perfection, and conformity. We've learned to hide our mistakes, disguise our vulnerabilities, and sometimes distance ourselves from the very cultures and experiences that make us who we are.
My work is both a confrontation with that shame and a celebration of the freedom that comes from letting it go.
As an Black Puerto Rican woman raised in New York City, my understanding of culture was shaped by a world where differences existed side by side. We embraced one another's cultures, contradictions, and stereotypes, sometimes imperfectly, but always in conversation. That experience continues to influence the stories I explore.
My work is deeply rooted in the African diaspora, particularly the experiences of Black and Brown women. I draw inspiration from hip-hop, our shared histories, everyday life, and the cultural and spiritual traditions that have survived generations of misunderstanding, suppression, and reinvention.
My curiosity about spirituality began with my great-grandmother, a Spiritist whose influence encouraged me to question, explore, and seek understanding. That curiosity eventually led me to Lukumí, a tradition I seek to celebrate and make visible through my art. For me, culture and spirituality are inseparable; they are part of how we understand ourselves, our histories, and one another.
I rarely begin a piece knowing exactly what I want to say. More often, I begin with a question- sometimes about the world, sometimes about an idea I've inherited, and often about something I believe myself. I want to understand the why and how of things. I want to question what makes us uncomfortable and why we've been taught to look away.
I don't believe art has to explain itself to be meaningful. Sometimes someone connects with a piece because it reminds them of home. Sometimes it makes them laugh, feel beautiful, or remember something they've forgotten. Sometimes it challenges a belief or starts a conversation. And sometimes, it's simply something beautiful to look at.
All of those experiences matter to me.
I've spent much of my creative life telling stories through poetry, theater, and visual art. The medium may change, but my purpose remains the same. I want people to recognize themselves, even in the parts they've been taught to hide. I want them to know they aren't alone and that their imperfections, experiences, and histories do not make them less worthy of belonging.
Above all, I want my art to feel like home.
Sometimes joyful. Sometimes chaotic. Sometimes uncomfortable. Always familiar, always evolving, and never something we should have to apologize for.