Poets from MSU and the greater Lansing community will write and perform original work exploring changing notions of authenticity and mis/dis/information in an era shaped by AI and digital surrogates. Competing for three cash prizes, performers will be scored by community judges selected at random from the audience, making this milestone 10th installation of the poetry slam as interactive as it is thought-provoking.
This special edition of the poetry slam will be hosted by acclaimed poet, playwright, and cultural leader Mahogany L. Browne alongside Natasha T. Miller, the MSU Museum’s Community Engagement Manager and a three-time top-five finalist at the Women of the World Poetry Slam, in partnership with the RCAH Center for Poetry. In addition to co-hosting the evening, Browne will offer a featured reading of her own work.
Refreshments will be provided.
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator is a Kennedy Center Next 50 Fellow, and the inaugural Distinguished Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University, she is also a MacDowell Arts Advocacy Awardee, NAACP Image Award nominess and a New York Emmy nominee for How to Build a City (All Arts). Browne has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Arts for Justice, Baldwin for the Arts, Hawthorden, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, UCross, and more.
Her acclaimed books include Vinyl Moon; Chlorine Sky (optioned by Steppenwolf Theatre); Black Girl Magic; and the frequently challenged works Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. She is also the founder of the Woke Baby Book Fair, a national celebration of diverse children’s literature.
Browne’s poetry collection Chrome Valley, praised by The New York Times and Publishers Weekly, won the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize; and she is the recipient of the Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University. Her most recent young adult novel, A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Browne holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Marymount Manhattan College and serves as the inaugural Poet-in-Residence at Lincoln Center.