RYANE LEÃO is a lesbian, Afro-Brazilian poet and English language teacher, born in 1989 in Cuiabá, capital of the Center-West State of Mato Grosso. She moved to São Paulo where she studied literature at the Federal University of São Paulo.
She is considered one of the most representative militants of Brazil’s poetry today. Her poems speak mainly about female empowerment, social inequality, and the struggle against racism.
After venturing into online social media platforms in 2007, the poet has found success on Facebook and Instagram, where she currently has 186,000 and 631,000 followers, respectively.
Her short-form poems also gained public attention through poster street art, a common feature on city streets of downtown São Paulo. Participation at slam poetry events further boosted her work.
In 2016, Ryane held a crowdfunding campaign to self-publish her debut poetry collection, Tudo Nela Brilha e Queima: Poemas de Luta e Amor (Everything in Her Shines and Burns: Poems of Struggle and Love). Then in 2017, Editora Planeta do Brasil, one of Brazil’s major book publishers, contacted her with interest in publishing her poetry collection. With sales of 40,000 copies, the collection became a bestseller and put the young poet into the spotlight of Brazil’s literary world.
Following the success of Ryane’s debut collection, in 2019, Editora Planeta published her second book, Jamais peço desculpas por me (I never apologize for myself).
Ryane Leão is the co-founder of Odara English School in São Paulo, where an all-black female staff teach black women English as a second language through the lens of Afro culture and black feminism. According to its Facebook page: “The school aims to strengthen the self-esteem of black women so that they can find their voice and build their own narratives.”
Photo Credit: The Poet’s Facebook Page
