Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany L. Browne was born in Oakland, California. She received an MFA in writing and activism from the Pratt Institute. She is the author of several poetry collections and chapbooks, including Kissing Caskets (YesYes Books, 2017), Smudge (Button Poetry, 2016), Redbone (Aquarius Press, 2015) and #Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out Online (Penmanship Books, 2010). She is also the author of the children’s books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice (Roaring Brook Press, 2020); Black Girl Magic (Roaring Brook Press, 2018); and Woke Baby (Roaring Brook Press, 2018). In addition, she is the editor of His Rib: Stories, Poems & Essays by HER (Penmanship Books, 2007). Browne is the founder and publisher of Penmanship Books, which she created “as the answer to the performance poet’s publishing problem.” An award-winning performance poet, she is also active in the spoken word community. She has released five LPs of her work and has served as the poetry program director and Friday Night Slam curator for the Nuyorican Poets Café. Browne has received fellowships from the Arts for Justice Fund, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Poets House, among other honors and awards. She is the Executive Director of Bowery Poetry Club, Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC, and Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College. She is also the founder of Woke Baby Book Fair and is completing her first book of essays on mass incarceration, investigating its impact on women and children. Browne is the Guest Editor for a special series of Poem-a-Day from July 20–July 31, 2020, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Source
working title
The name of this poem is:
How to write a poem about Ferguson
Or
The name of this poem is:
How a black man dies and no one makes a sound
Or
The name of this poem is:
Everywhere is Ferguson
Or
The name of this poem is:
When the moonrise sounds like gunshots
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to teach your babies to walk and not run, ever.
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to teach your babies to carry a wallet
the size of your smile
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to smile & not make yourself a target
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write a poem the same size of Emmett Till’s lungs
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write a poem about America’s thirst
Or
The name of this poem is:
Black blood’ll keep you thirsty
Or
The name of this poem is:
I’m still thirsty, An American Horror Story
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write an escape route from a tornado
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write an escape route
when the tornado’s name is Stop & Frisk
Or
The name of this poem is:
How walk the streets without fearing
someone will cut your neck open
Or
How to walk into a boardroom
without fearing someone will cut your legacy open
Or
How to walk without asking for it
Or
How to walk without asking for it
Or
How to determine what “asking for it” looks like
Or
The name of this poem is:
How “asking for it” feel like a church bombing
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to not intimidate nobody in 3 small steps
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to use your science books as Teflon
& how that still might not work
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write about the one time you held a gun
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write about the one time you had a gun pointed to your face
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write about the one time you had a gun pointed to your face
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write about the one time you had a gun pointed to your face
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write about the one time you had a gun pointed to your face
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write a poem from the perspective of a cop’s gun
a cop’s Taser
a cop’s baton
a cop’s boot
Or
The name of this poem is:
How to write poem without r e p e a t i n g yourself
Published:
2014
Length:
Regular
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2021
Themes:
Police Brutality
Literary Devices:
Allusion
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference
Anaphora
a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences
Polysyndeton
the repetition of conjunctions frequently and in close proximity in a sentence