Ajanae Dawkins is a Michigan and New York Native. She received a degree in English Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin - Madison on a full tuition scholarship with the OMAI First Wave, Hip-hop and Urban Arts scholarship for her poetry. She has performed and featured at venues across the country. She has opened for the United Nations Secretary of Sexual Violence in Conflict. She has been published in The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology, The Underscore Review, The Blueshift Journal, Word Riot and Winter Tangerine, and Gramma Poetry. Her work has also been featured on For Harriet, Def Jam, and Button Poetry. She’s been awarded artist of the year by Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated. Ajanae is the winner of Tinderbox Poetry Journal’s Editor’s Prize and a finalist for the Brett Elizabeth Jenkins poetry prize. She is a two time individual finalist for the Rustbelt regional slam, crowning her as one of the top five poets in the midwest, twice. In 2015, she debuted her one woman show, Atlantic, directed by Tony award winning, Karen Olivo. She is a fellow of The Watering Hole’s writer’s retreat for African American writers and Pink Door writer’s retreat. She was also a contributing writer for the Theatre Lila, theatre company. She has been featured in Ebony Magazine for the Faces of Frustration: A Year of Racial Protest.