Watch our interview with Amena Brown, author of the essay collection Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl. We discussed the impact her mom had on her early writing aspirations, her experience as a spoken word poet, what makes a good stage piece, including both poetry and prose in her book, finding and honing her comedic voice, the evolving role of the church in her life, why Black women are her main audience, fact-checking her memories with her friends, her editor’s impact on her collection, and more.
You can read a transcript of our interview by clicking the icon that looks like a page with writing on it, to the left of the closed captions.
Find out more about Amena at amenabrown.com and follow her at @amenabee on Instagram.
Read Amena’s essay “The Music I Threw Away.”
The Music I Threw Away
My first musical memory is my dad leaning against our wall unit clad in a white undershirt and a black durag listening to Earth, Wind & Fire on a JVC record player. He was mesmerized by the sounds of their album That’s the Way of the World. The groove. The horn section. The sway of the percussion. Anytime I hear their music I still think of him.
