[7] She lived for a time at the Pen and Brush Club, a professional organization that rented reasonably priced rooms in a Greenwich Village townhouse to women in the arts, where she was mentored by a local artist and educator, Linda Rapuano.
[9] In the 1970s, Gómez returned to New York City and taught drama at Johnny Colon’s East Harlem Music School.
[10] At these salons and other readings, she encountered many prominent members of the Nuyorican Movement, including Pedro Pietri, José Ángel Figueroa, Sandra María Esteves, and Judith Ortiz-Cofer.
While at the University of Massachusetts, she developed the Writing from the Belly series, which would inspire a group of students to produce a show titled Body Politics, which would go on to become a yearly performance, inviting women of color from across the Five College community to participate.
[9] As Poet Laureate, she collaborated with the Springfield Public Library and created the podcast, Jazz Ready: 15 Minutes (more or less) of Unexpected Pleasure.
[15] She also commentates for the New England Public Radio and writes a monthly column, Latino Groove, for the Springfield area newspaper, Point of View.
[1] Magdalena Gómez co-founded Teatro V!da, a performing arts collective that explores multicultural and multigenerational issues.
[2] The theatre is in the process of creating a production that combines live music and dancing with poetry in partnership with the Ferocious Women's Group.
[3] Dancing in My Cockroach Killers (2013) is a performing arts piece consisting of a collection of Gómez's poems and monologues set to music by composer Desmar Guevara.
[18] The book is divided into six sections: Shameless Woman, Family, To the Essence, The Invention of War, Lessons from the Dream World, and Endangered Species.