|
|
| photo: Heath Antonio | |
Writer, playwright, organizer, and educator Mahogany L. Browne, selected as one of the Kennedy Center's Next 50, is Wesleyan's 2022-2023 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, executive director of JustMedia, and artistic director of Urban Word. She is the author of Vinyl Moon; Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theatre); Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice (with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood); Woke Baby; and editor (with Idrissa Simmonds and Jamila Woods) of Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, she is also the first poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. Browne's latest poetry collection is Chrome Valley (Liveright).
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Chrome Valley is a collection of survival notes, from cul de sac America, where some of the most vicious violence occurs: addiction, abandonment, and apathy.
On your nightstand now:
We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride, Taught by Women, edited by Haki R. Madhubuti, and Unshuttered by Patricia Smith.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Anything written by Beverly Clearly. Period(t).
Your top five authors:
Shay Youngblood, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison, Terrance Hayes, Alice Walker.
Book you've faked reading:
Some jawn by Shakespeare. It wasn't his fault. I was just done.
Book you're an evangelist for:
It's a tie--or a double service: Salvage the Bones x Black Girl in Paris
Book you've bought for the cover:
I'm not sure there is one!
Book you hid from your parents:
B-Boy Blues.
Book that changed your life:
Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison x Mama by Terry McMillan.
Favorite line from a book:
let me wear the day/ well so when it reaches you/ you will enjoy it --Sonia Sanchez
&
God is change --Octavia Butler
Five books you'll never part with:
I'll part with all my books. I stole from the library when I was younger. It is now my obligation to keep these books in rotation. (Though I have a first edition of Gwendolyn Brooks, Octavia Butler, and Terrance Hayes--so I guess those??)
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Song of Solomon.