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Derrick Weston-Brown photo by Marlene Hawthrone Thomas

Derrick Weston Brown

POET, AUTHOR & EDUCATOR

Biography

BIO

Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in creative writing, from American University. He has studied poetry under Dr. Tony Medina at Howard University and Cornelius Eady at American University. He is a graduate of the Cave Canem and  VONA Voices summer workshops. His work has appeared in such literary journals as The Little Patuxent Review,  Colorlines, The This Mag, and Vinyl online. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. He worked as a bookseller and book buyer for a bookstore which is operated by the nonprofit Teaching for Change. He was the founder of The Nine on the Ninth, a critically acclaimed monthly poetry series that ran from 2005-2015 at the 14th & V street location of Busboys and Poets. He was the 2012-2013 Writer-In-Residence of the Howard County Poetry Literary Society, of Maryland.  He is also a participating DC area author for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s Writers-in-Schools program. He’s performed at such esteemed venues as The Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe and the Bowery. He has lead workshops and performed at Georgetown University, George Washington University, Sweet Briar College and Chicago State. He has appeared on Al-Jazeera and NPR as well.  In May of 2014 he was also the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant. He is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and resides in Mount Rainier, Maryland. His debut collection of poetry entitled, Wisdom Teeth, was released in April 2011 on Busboys and Poets Press/PM Press. His second collection of poetry, a chapbook entitled On All Fronts , was released  along with two other poetry chapbooks in a bound series from Upper Rubber Boot Press entitled Floodgates Vol.5 , this March of 2019. You can follow him on social media on Facebook and on Instagram @theoriginalDerrickWestonBrown .

Poetry 

Click the following links to read published poems by Derrick Weston-Brown:

Featured in the Narrative Northeast online literary journal February 5, 2019

POOL

from the Aquabruh/Melinated Merman series & for Black men who swim.

Featured in the June 2018 Summer issue of The Little Patuxet Review Journal

“Bruuuuuh or When Brothers Debate Black Panther in a Safeway Parking Lot: A Found (Overheard) Poem.

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New Anthology Release!! Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African-American Poetry

ed. by Joanne V. Gabbin, Lauren K Alleyne with Foreword by Rita Dove. Northwestern University Press 2019

Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry is an anthology of poems by more than one hundred award-winning poets, including Jericho Brown, Justin Philip Reed, and Tracy K. Smith, with themed essays on poetics from celebrated scholars such as Kwame Dawes, Meta DuEwa Jones, and Evie Shockley. The Furious Flower Poetry Center is the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry. In this eponymous collection, editors Joanne V. Gabbin and Lauren K. Alleyne bring together many of the paramount voices in Black poetry and poetics active today, composing an electrifying mosaic of voices, generations, and aesthetics that reveals the Black narrative in the  work of twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers. Intellectually enlightening and powerfully enlivening, Furious Flower explores and celebrates the idea of the Black poetic voice by posing the question, What’s next for Black poetic expression?

   Floodgates Poetry Series Vol.5         "On All Fronts

These poems are replete with originality (remember saxophonist Lester Young's artistic credo "You got to be original, man!") technical and emotional range, and--most importantly--feeling. They entrance the reader; and they make you rethink the world around (and inside) you. Read and re-read and re-read these poems. And recite them out loud. because they are also as musical as a kiss. Lucky us, world. Lucky us. --Reuben Jackson, poet and author of Fingering The Keys

Wisdom Teeth

by Derrick Weston Brown

To consider Wisdom Teeth is to acknowledge inevitable movement, shift, and sometimes pain. There’s change hidden just below the surface and, like it or not, once it breaks, everything has to make room. So goes the aptly titled debut poetry collection from poet and educator Derrick Weston Brown. Wisdom Teeth reveals the ongoing internal and external reconstruction of a poet's life and world, as told through a litany of forms and myriad of voices, some the poet’s own. 

 

Wisdom Teeth is a questioning work, a redefining of personal relationships, masculinity, race, and history. It’s a readjustment of bite, humor, and perspective as Brown channels hip-hop, Toni Morrison, and Snagglepuss to make way for the shudder and eruption of wisdom.

To consider Wisdom Teeth is to acknowledge inevitable movement, shift, and sometimes pain. There’s change hidden just below the surface and, like it or not, once it breaks, everything has to make room. So goes the aptly titled debut poetry collection from poet and educator Derrick Weston Brown. Wisdom Teeth reveals the ongoing internal and external reconstruction of a poet's life and world, as told through a litany of forms and myriad of voices, some the poet’s own. 

 

Wisdom Teeth is a questioning work, a redefining of personal relationships, masculinity, race, and history. It’s a readjustment of bite, humor, and perspective as Brown channels hip-hop, Toni Morrison, and Snagglepuss to make way for the shudder and eruption of wisdom.

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Buy 

Wisdom Teeth

Print Version and E-Book Available

POETRY

Events

Feb 21, 2020

Friday February 21, 2020 6pm-9pm Rooms 303 & 304: Presented by Rev. Dr. Grainger Browning Jr. Sr. Pastor , Rev. Dr. Jo Ann Browning, Co-Pastor & Sistah Joy Alford, Poetry Ministry President

Featured Poet for "African -Americans & The Vote" a Black History Month 2020 Celebration: The Ebeneezer A. m. E. Church Poetry Ministry: Additional featured artists: The Annointed P.E.N.S. , The Psalmists of Solomon, The Malcolm X Drummers & Dancers ,

Ebeneezer A.M.E. Church 7707 Allentown Rd Fort Washington MD 20745

Feb 24, 2020

Date: Monday, February 24, 2020 Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Location: Martha Washington Meeting Room 104A , Martha Washington Meeting Room 104B Library Branch: Martha Washington Library

Featured poet at the "Hear at Martha's" reading series at the Martha Washington Community Library with fellow writers: Melanie Figg, Tara Campbell, Yvette Neisser. Hosted by Plan B press publisher, Steven Allenmay

Local poets Melanie Figg, Tara Campbell, Yvette Neisser and Derrick Weston Brown will read and discuss their work. Adults and teens.

Apr 17, 2020

New Leaves writers' conference at Mason, is a spring mini-conference hosted by the MFA in creative writing program and sponsored by the Fall for the Book festival. Events include published writer panel discussions, presentations from Literary agents, and readings from national and local critically acclaimed writers

Featured panelist at George Mason University's (Fairfax Campus) "New Leaves Writers Conference" discussing "How Literary Artists Put Their Work to Work for Themselves"

​The New Leaves writers' conference at Mason is  a spring mini-conference hosted by the MFA in creative writing program and sponsored by the Fall for the Book festival. Events include published writer panel discussions, presentations from Literary agents, and readings from nationally and locally critically acclaimed writers.

Dec 12, 2020

AUGUST 22, 2020–JANUARY 10, 2021 Anastacia-Reneé: (Don’t be Absurd) Alice in Parts Combining poetry, assemblage, and video, this immersive installation by multi-genre writer and performer Anastacia-Reneé offers a rageful meditation on the gentrification of the black body, black neighborhoods, and blackness itself as seen through the eyes of her complicated and humorous character “Alice.”

Guest/Visiting poet participating in the poetry reading portion of (Don't Be Absurd) Alice in Parts, an interactive arts installation exhibit by writer, artist & former Seattle Civic poet Anastacia-Renee

The Frye Art Museum is a living legacy of visionary patronage and civic responsibility, committed to artistic inquiry and a rich visitor experience. A catalyst for our engagement with contemporary art and artists is the Founding Collection of Charles and Emma Frye, access to which shall always be free.

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EVENTS
VIDEO
CONTACT

Contact Me

Washington, DC

Booking Inquiries

BookingWestonBrown@gmail.com

Poets Tour

CaveCanemPoets.org

www.cavecanempoets.org/poetstour


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