Acevedo began her career teaching eighth grade in
Prince George's County, Maryland. While coaxing a student to read more, the student said she was not reading because "these books aren't about us." Acevedo realized her students were affected by the lack of diversity in their books and not by their capabilities. Although the school's population was 78 percent Latino and 20 percent black, she was the first Latino teacher to teach a core subject. She has performed at
Lincoln Center,
Madison Square Garden, the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, South Africa's State Theatre, Bozar in Brussels, and the National Library of Kosovo. She has also delivered several
TED Talks, and her masterful poetry videos have been featured in
Latina magazine,
Cosmopolitan,
HuffPost, and
Upworthy. She is also the author of three young adult novels.
Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths was published in 2016 and was a finalist for YesYes
Chapbook Prize. Her fourth,
Clap When You Land, was published in May 2020. It is about two sisters who grow up unaware of each other while living in different countries, but learn of each other after their father dies. The book was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. Acevedo is both a
CantoMundo fellow and
Cave Canem fellow. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming from
Poetry,
Puerto Del Sol,
Callaloo,
The Notre Dame Review, and other publications. She also works as a visiting instructor at an adjudicated youth center in
Washington, D.C., where she works with incarcerated women and with teenagers. ==Personal life==