Mahogany L. Browne is one of the Micro editors at The Offing. She is a Cave Canem and Poets House alum and the author of several books including Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. She has released five LPs including the live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer of NYC’s 1st Performance Poetry Festival: SoundBites Poetry Festival, Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee. Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada’s The Word and UK’s MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary, Joint & The Feminist Wire. She has just released Smudge (Button Poetry), Redbone (Willow Books) & the anthology The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket). She is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO’s Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. Browne is also the publisher of Penmanship Books, the Nuyorican Poets Café Poetry Program Director and Friday Night Slam curator and currently an MFA Candidate for Writing & Activism at Pratt Institute.
What doors does The Offing open for you?
I have just begun working with The Offing, but creatively — it truly is inspiring to continuously push myself to read outside of my comfort zone.
Is there a piece you’ve worked on or found at The Offing that’s been especially meaningful to you?
Safia Elhillo’s “Alternate Ending.” It was a beautiful reminder of the fight that poetry allows us; that language is a tool/a weapon for justice, too.
What would you like to see us do with the donations we receive during our fundraiser?
Maybe a fellowship or online writing workshop for emerging writers?