Mahogany L. Browne
Acclaimed Performance Poet Visionary & Activist NAACP Image Award Finalist
Readings &
Lecture Topics
- Black Girl Magic
- Limbs & Language: a generative writing workshop
- Woke, and other ways to engage with your community
- Poems as a form of resistance
- An evening of Black Girl Magic
- An Evening with Mahogany L. Browne
Biography
“Mahogany L. Browne entwines the carceral economy, planetary shifts, border abuses, the pandemic and more through a diversity of syntax and visual cues. Browne reflects on and responds to a deeply conflicted time in which all that’s consistent is inconsistency, underscoring how much we need poems like these, and poets like her.” —Chicago Review of Books
“Mahogany L. Browne is the geometer and keeper of our sacred realities; she raises even the heirlooms of the dead; every molecule of a path home. A leap into revolution. Telling our whole lives. Here on paper are the mannerisms of a hurricane; like looking at a poem and seeing that your big sister is God.” —Tongo Eisen-Martin
“Raging and bountiful and humming with irresistible music… a prolific cross-genre writer.” –Buzzfeed
Writer, organizer, vocalist, performance poet, and educator Mahogany L. Browne is the author of poetry and fiction. Her illustrated poetry book Black Girl Magic celebrates a black girlhood that is “free, unforgettable, and luminous” (School Library Journal), while her children’s book Woke Baby is for all the littlest progressives who grow up to change the world; both were published in 2018 by Roaring Brook/Macmillan. Her other YA titles include Vinyl Moon (Penguin Random House, 2021), which weaves together prose, poems, and vignettes to tell the story of a young woman whose past was shaped by domestic violence but whose love of language and music and the gift of community grant her the chance to find herself again; and Chlorine Sky (Penguin Random House, 2021), which Elizabeth Acevedo designated “an absolute masterpiece.”
Browne’s boldly lyrical and and fiercely honest poetry intricately mines the experience of being a Black woman in America. Her collections include: Chrome Valley (W. W. Norton, 2023), which was a Best Book of 2023 in TIME, Electric Literature and received Paterson Poetry Prize (2024); I Remember Death By Its Proximity to What I Love (Haymarket Books, 2021); Kissing Caskets (YesYes Books, 2017); and the NAACP-nominated chapbook Redbone (Willow Books, 2016). From maternal lineage, young love, and friendship to inherited traumas and the systemic violence of incarceration, her body of work sings sacred and loud.
Browne has co-edited the anthology The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 3: Black Girl Magic, declared by Dazed as “one of the most important volumes of poetry in recent years.” She is also the author of the the YA anthology WOKE: A Young Poets Guide To Justice (Roaring Brook Press, 2020), co-edited with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood.
Born in Berkeley, California, Browne dropped out of high school after being told not to write poetry during an English honors class. Using her personal experiences with addiction, racism, sexism and oppression to inspire her own brand of shameless authentic work, Browne’s performances create a platform for women and girls to feel empowered and heard.
She has a MFA in Writing and Activism from Pratt Institute, where she founded the Women Writers of Color Reading Room and became the director of the Black Lives Matter program. She is the publisher of Penmanship Books, she served as curator of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Friday Night Slam for thirteen years, and is presently the artistic director at Urban Word NYC (a non-profit youth literary organization). Browne is one of the founders of the socially active literary collective #BlackPoetsSpeakOut (with Amanda Johnston, Jonterri Gadson, Jericho Brown, and Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe), created out of urgency and as a response to the non-indictment of the Mike Brown’s murderer.
Her work has appeared in Poetry, Bustle, BET, Academy of American Poets, and other venues. She has also released six LPs, including studio album Chrome Valley (a collaboration with Sean Mason), and live album Sheroshima.
Browne has received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Kennedy Center, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, & UCross. Browne has been featured in PBS NewsHour reading her poem “Black Girl Magic”, Kelly Corrigan’s Tell Me More, and in HBO’s Brave New Voices. She has toured internationally as a member of Global Poetics, an international arts exchange.
Mahogany L. Browne is the founder of Woke Baby Book Fair, a traveling diverse reading campaign, Black Girl Ball, and received an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College. She is the first-ever poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and writes across the genre as a resident of Brooklyn, NY.
Short Bio
Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, & UCross. Browne’s books include Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for a play by Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne currently tours Chrome Valley (highlighted in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times) and is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded by Marymount Manhattan College in 2024, is the inaugural poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center, and is at work on her first adult fiction and fourth YA novel-in-verse in Brooklyn, NY.
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Publications
Chrome Valley
Poetry, 2023
A highly anticipated volume from critically acclaimed poet Mahogany L. Browne, Chrome Valley is at once a luminous hymn and a battle cry. Spanning the course of her own life as well as embodying centuries of virulent history, this collection pays solemn tribute to the women who came before her. Musically effervescent yet cutting poems capture the peculiar joys and pangs of Black girlhood: “you ain’t had freedom / ’til you climb on a bus 62 / & head to the closet mall / for a girl fight”; while others explore the inherent grief of motherhood, rhythmically intoning names like the tolling of a church bell: “Because Lesley McSpadden / Because Mamie Till / Because a Black mother know ain’t no song for that empty in ya belly.” Transcendent and grounded, funny and furious, the poems within bring depth to a movement, announcing Mahogany L. Browne as one of the most important poetic voices of our time.
Vinyl Moon
Young Adult, 2022
A teen girl hiding the scars of a past relationship finds home and healing in the words of strong Black writers. A great companion for readers of Nic Stone, Amy Fellner Dominy, and Renée Watson. When Darius told Angel he loved her, she believed him. But five weeks after the incident, Angel finds herself in Brooklyn, far from her family, Darius, and the California life she has known. Angel feels out of sync with her new neighborhood. At school, she can’t shake the feeling everyone knows what happened—and how it was her fault. The only place that makes sense is Ms. G’s class. There, Angel’s classmates share their own stories of pain, joy, and fortitude. And as Angel becomes immersed in her revolutionary literature course, the words from novels like The Bluest Eye, The House on Mango Street, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Push speak to her and begin to heal the wounds of her past. Award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne weaves together prose, poems, and vignettes to tell the story of Angel, a young woman whose past was shaped by domestic violence but whose love of language and music and the gift of community grant her the chance to find herself again.
I Remember Death by its Proximity to What I Love
Poetry, 2021
Mahogany L. Browne’s evocative book-length poem explores the impacts of the prison system on both the incarcerated and the loved ones left behind. I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love is an expansive poetic meditation on who we think is bound by incarceration. The answer: all of us. Weaving personal narrative, case studies, and inventive form, Browne invokes the grief, pain, and resilience in the violent wake of the prison system. This poem is dirge work but allows us to revel in the intricacies of our human condition. Written by a beloved and prolific writer, organizer, and educator, this work serves as a practice of self-reflection and accountability. Browne steps into the lineage of Sonia Sanchez’s Does Your House Have Lions? with the precision of a master wordsmith and the empathy of an attentive storyteller.
Chlorine Sky
Young Adult, 2021
“Mahogany L. Browne’s debut YA ia an absolute masterpiece. It will leave you breathless.” –Elizabeth Acevedo
She looks me hard in my eyes
& my knees lock into tree trunks
My eyes don’t dance like my heartbeat racing
They stare straight back hot daggers.
I remember things will never be the same.
I remember things.
With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend. A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.
Woke: A Young Poet's Guide to Justice
Young Adult, 2020
Co-edited with Olivia Gatwood and Elizabeth Acevedo, Woke: A Young Poet’s Guide to Justice is a collection of poems to inspire kids to stay woke and become a new generation of activists. Historically poets have been on the forefront of social movements. Woke is a collection of poems by women that reflects the joy and passion in the fight for social justice, tackling topics from discrimination to empathy, and acceptance to speaking out. With Theodore Taylor’s bright, emotional art, and writing from Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood, kids will be inspired to create their own art and poems to express how they see justice and injustice. With a foreword by best-selling author Jason Reynolds.
Woke Baby
Children’s, 2018
“Bubbling with an easy joy and nascent sense of justice—and the notion that the two can certainly go hand in hand.” —Kirkus Review
For all the littlest progressives, waking up to seize a new day of justice and activism. Woke babies are up early. Woke babies raise their fists in the air. Woke babies cry out for justice. Woke babies grow up to change the world. This lyrical and empowering book is both a celebration of what it means to be a baby and what it means to be woke. With bright playful art, Woke Baby is an anthem of hope in a world where the only limit to a skyscrapper is more blue.
The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic
Anthology, 2018
“The poems in the collection, influenced by the rhythms, lyricism, and expressiveness of hip-hop music and culture, speak to the many dimensions of black womanhood.” —Poets & Writers
A BreakBeat Poets anthology to celebrate and canonize the words of Black women across the diaspora. Black Girl Magic continues and deepens the work of the first BreakBeat Poets anthology by focusing on some of the most exciting Black women writing today. This anthology breaks up the myth of hip-hop as a boys’ club, and asserts the truth that the cypher is a feminine form.
Black Girl Magic
Young Adult Poetry, 2018
“Browne celebrates a Black girlhood that is free, unforgettable, and luminous. Middle and high school poetry collections will want to consider.” —School Library Journal
Much of what twenty-first century culture tells black girls is not pretty: Don’t wear this; don’t smile at that. Don’t have an opinion; don’t dream big. And most of all, don’t love yourself. In response to such destructive ideas, internationally recognized poet Mahogany Browne challenges the conditioning of society by crafting an anthem of strength and magic undeniable in its bloom for all beautiful Black girls. She has traveled the world sharing her vision of Black Girl Magic, and now in collaboration with artist Jess X. Snow, presents her acclaimed tribute in a visual form. Black Girl Magic is a journey from girlhood to womanhood and an invitation to readers to find magic in themselves.
Kissing Caskets
Poetry, 2017
“Mahogany L. Browne transcends formal innovation. She doesn’t just use form — she makes form work for her. Browne writes in both doorways and catalysts, tackling gender, sexuality, racialization, the body, and the prison industrial complex.” —Medium
Like most young black girls growing up in Northern California, Mahogany L. Browne tussles with ideas of femininity and gender roles, addiction and the prison industrial complex, sexuality & seclusion. Inquiries of the living and dying survive on the pages of Kissing Caskets as the reader is invited to do the self excavation. Each poem a eulogized celebration of what we lose to the dark when no one is looking.
Articles & Audio
Read What’s In Print
• Beyond Cool, She Was Fly. Her Confidence Gave Me Wings – The New York Times
• Mahogany L. Browne Pivots to YA with Debut Novel, Chlorine Sky – Shondaland
• What’s in a Page: Chlorine Sky’s Mahogany L. Browne Can Write Quite Literally Anywhere – EW
• Mahogany L. Browne on what Kamala Harris Means to Her – The Guardian
• The Pen Ten: An Interview with Mahogany L. Browne – PEN America
• How to write a poem about Ferguson — PBS
• The making of The BreakBeat Poets Volume 2: Black Girl Magic — Chicago Reader
• Mahogany L. Browne: Black Girl Magic — PBS
• From Serena Williams to Michelle Obama: How Do We Portray Black Womanhood? — Broadly
• This ‘Black Girl Magic’ Poem Is An Illustrated Anthem Of Strength — Bustle
• This Is Just To Say: Mahogany L. Browne with Carrie Fountain — Kut.com
Listen to Audio
• Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan: Mahogany Browne – Thirteen
• You Don’t Have to Always Be Right (with Mahogany L. Browne) – CROOKED
• Mahogany L. Browne Recites Poem in Honor of Fannie Lou Hamer – Vibe
Selected Writings
• Read “Blueprint and Hymnal” — Academy of American Poets
LITANY
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me —Nina Simone
today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
the rent raised three times my wages
the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
the people on the corner
each lock & key their chromosomes
a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues
today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
the blows
& i will beg for forgiveness when i curse
the rising sun
today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from
the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
most times i think my neighbors are nosey
today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover’s
today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom
today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
and i forget how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
—i’m too in awe of how beautiful i look
on fire
