Mahogany L. Browne

Mahogany L. Browne (born as Lesley Tims) is an American poet, curator, writer, organizer and educator. As of July 2021, Browne is the first-ever poet-in-residence at New York City's Lincoln Center.

Biography

Mahogany L. Browne was born and raised in Oakland, California before moving to Brooklyn, New York in 1999. She recalls never having imagined moving to New York permanently as someone born and raised in Oakland, California but after her summer residency at Pratt Institute ended, she decided to stay. She earned a master of fine arts degree in writing and activism from the Pratt Institute.

She is known for her thirteen-year tenure as the Friday Night Slam curator and Poetry Program director at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Lower Manhattan. In 2019, Browne served as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) program coordinator at her alma mater, Pratt Institute, where she was also a visiting instructor.

Browne is currently the executive director at Bowery Poetry Club, founded by Bob Holman in 2003. Browne is also the artistic director at Urban Word NYC, Poetry Coordinator at St. Francis College and the author of several books (including children's books), stage plays, articles and audio recordings. The founder of Penmanship Books, Browne has received numerous awards and fellowships, among which is a fellowship from the Art for Justice Fund (A4J). The Academy of American Poets has published several blog essays of Browne's through their partnership with A4J.

Awards

In 2019, Browne received a SWACC! Focus Fellowship, which is awarded to a spoken word author whose lifelong creative work has demonstrated a commitment to building community through collaborative models.

She was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry.

In 2024, she received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Marymount Manhattan College.

Publications

Young Adult

Chlorine Sky, Crown/Penguin Random, 2020

Vinyl Moon, Crown/Penguin Random, 2021

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Crown/Penguin, 2025

Poetry collections

Kissing Caskets, Yes Yes Books, 2017

Unlikely & Other Sorts, Penmanship Books, 2006

Destroy, Rebuild & Other Reconstructions of the Human Muscle, Penmanship Books, 2009

#Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out Online in 140 Characters or Less, Penmanship Books, 2010

Swag, Penmanship Books, 2010 smudge, Button Poetry, 2015

REDBone, Willow Books, 2015

Black Girl Magic: A Poem, Roaring Brook Press, 2018

Woke Baby, Roaring Brook Press, 2018

Chrome Valley, Liveright Publishing, 2023

Essays

"Dismantling Rage: On Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider"

Poems

"Ego-Tripp(ed)," The Academy of American Poets, 2015

"Litany," The Academy of American Poets, 2019

"Inevitable," The Academy of American Poets, 2019

"On St. John’s and Franklin Avenue," The Academy of American Poets, 2019

"The 19th Amendment & My Mama", March 21 2020

Anthologies

Editor, His Rib: Stories, Poems & Essays by Her, Penmanship Books, 2007

Editor and contributor, The BreakBeat Poets Volume 2: Black Girl Magic, Haymarket Books, 2018

Contributor, Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim, Penguin Random House, 2018

Lead author (with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood), Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice, Roaring Brook Press, 2020

Contributor, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, Penguin Random House, 2020

Contributor, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song by Kevin Young, Penguin Random House, 2020