photo: Kenya Kiongozi

Melvin E. Brown was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.  He attended Columbia University and is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where he received his M.A.  He has published two books of poetry, In The First Place and Blue

photo: bbcloris

Notes and Blessing Songs (Liberation House); and his poetry has appeared in various publications and anthologies, including City Paper, Southern Exposure, Hoo-Doo, Gathering Voices, Baltimore Renaissance Poetry, The Drumming Between Us and In Search of Color Everywhere. He has been the poetry editor of Chicory, a literary magazine of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and Dawn Magazine, a publication of the Afro-American Newspaper. A lyricist for recording artists, he also has written for film and served as Assistant Editor of Blind Alleys. The founder of the Pamoja Writers Collective, Melvin is  a former faculty member at Sojourner Douglass College and Towson University, where he taught African American Literature and Creative Writing.