Semaj Brown
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
“In the garden of my early childhood, my poetry love story germinates. It was the immersion in arts and sciences, exploration of the natural world, science lab in my basement, recitation of Broadside Press Legacy Poets, intermittent summers studying Shakespeare in Stratford, Ontario, attendance at Arts and Crafts, predecessor to The Center for Creative Studies in Detroit - that made fertile, my mind for the marriage between poetry and analysis. I flourished attending to my patch of mud and roses, observing roots and shoots, a primer for the ecology of my professional life. The power to re-imagine one’s condition is innate, as primal as species reproduction or the quest for liberty. Communal capacity dreams, and then paints those dreams into a new cultural formation, onto a self-determined canvas. The development of my 30-year pedagogy/andragogy into an award-winning educational innovation, PSL/ Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method™ affords me the technology to standardize
and tailor the process of dissolving obsolete educational paradigms while installing design that creates new realities of wholeness. The Semajian Method functions as a technology to increase the capacity of literacies via a Social Emotional Learning lens, and the expansion of critical thinking through many modalities, including writing and public oratory exhibited through international integrative, literacy and wellness education platform, Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™.
There have been many educational successes. In 2002, the integrative processes of my practice allowed my 7-month consultation with a Detroit Charter School, Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology, Gloria House, PhD, Principal to raise MEAP scores from statistically negligible to the award-winning status of Golden Apple recipient!
Learners, whether elementary or university, whether in a museum, library, or enjoying an impromptu gathering on the sidewalk of life, assimilate information into understanding when they are intrigued. Nothing excites learning more than a lesson that makes sense, is relatable, and relevant. I am encouraged and excited when I consider our human capacity, how we can organize into configurations that serve us, grow us. I am driven by the arc of discovery, and by The Art of Unimagined Ecosystems.’” - Semaj Brown, Founder/Director of Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ (BDCV)
2026
AS A CELEBRATED THOUGHT LEADER
March 19, 2026, The Center for Gender and Sexuality at the University of Michigan-Flint, Director Professor Samara Hough recognized the integrative education and wellness work of Flint Poet Laureate, Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, 2021, Semaj Brown. The public was invited to participate in a 3-hour symposium honoring Semaj Brown’s internationally celebrated practice, PSL/Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method™ or Semajian Method featuring the poem “Black Dandelion” at the Kiva Auditorium, “13 Full Moons of Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ (BDCV) — A Symposium.” Highlighted were the scholarly and grassroots psycho-social, inspirational techniques of her practice implemented in disparate fields: Sociology, Law, Education, Ecology, Mathematics, Literacy, Literary Arts, History, Social work, and further.
Principals and educators enthusiastically took to the stage to give credence to the efficacious nature of engaging with “Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™(BDCV). Literacy capacity is enhanced. Some said that the poem has morphing abilities: it engages on varying developmental levels, third grade to graduate studies, seniors, and the community at large. BDCV is fueled by The Semajian Method which dissolves obsolete paradigms while synthesizing new realities and philosophies of wholeness. Interviews were live and Zoom recorded: Social workers from Contra Costa County, California, Children Family Services who are using the poem “Black Dandelion” in their practices: discussed the resonance of the work and indicated the poem’s message of resilience was far-reaching and transformative. University of Michigan Law Professor Susan M. Kornfield lauded The Semajian Method for its scholarly integrative engine, and highlighted the historical trademark significance of the BDCV mark. International, interdisciplinary Brooklyn based artist, Jasmine Murrell reminded attendees about the bonds of sisterhood through the layered expressions of art language and love.
Broadside Lotus Press 60th Year Celebration, Detroit Semaj Brown is a featured reader.
The poet laureate is a mentor, community advocate, educational consultant/curriculum developer (K-University) who builds elaborate integrative/interdisciplinary educational installations— extended workshops designed for schools, museums, libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, and in virtual spaces. Ms. Brown served twice as a Broadside Press poet-in-residence, in the Detroit Public Library system, and was Poet in Residence for the Arts League of Michigan at historic Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI.
AS AN AUTHOR
Ms. Brown is an essayist and playwright, and the author of the memoir, “Bleeding Fire! Tap the Eternal Spring of Regenerative Light,” Conversations in Poetry and Prose, Broadside Lotus Press, 2019.
“…Semaj Brown is a poet for suffocated voices…(Poems) explode with so much promise of how to sing back the dead on the brink of madness. This collection becomes(s) excavation; archaeological dig unlocking, unearthing, unsettling the margins that conjure forth profound…themes of ancient metrics… tapestry of marginalized mapmakers, shapeshifters…Semaj speaks to us through the dream of poetry where ‘the box of drowned eyes talk from the grave’ usher in an underworld where we all learn how to howl our names backwards in the dark...” -Jaki Shelton Green, Poet Laureate of North Carolina
Semaj Brown is also the author of the charming vegetarian, gluten free story cookbook and lyrical CD, “Feasts and Fables from the Planted Kingdom,” Health Collectors LLC, which evolved a volume of educational, innovative Planted Kingdom health programming and the theatrical production, Onion Revolt! To name a few, Semaj has been published in the noted “American Poet” , Peer-reviewed “Language Arts Journal of Michigan,” and Michigan Radio, April Beher Show.
Semaj Brown is a mentor, community advocate, educational consultant/curriculum developer (K-University) who builds elaborate integrative/interdisciplinary educational installations— extended workshops designed for schools, museums, libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, and in virtual spaces. Ms. Brown served twice as a Broadside Press poet-in-residence, in the Detroit Public Library system, and was Poet in Residence for the Arts League of Michigan at historic Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI. She has received proclamations for her accomplishments in service, scholarship, and for her transformative work with Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ from The State of Michigan, City of Flint and City of Detroit.
AS AN EDUCATION INNOVATOR/LECTURER/PERFORMER:
The Poet Laureate’s educational design is chronicled in course catalogs that boast over 100 original courses.
2025
The Offices of the 1st, 2nd and 7TH Wards Present First Annual African American History Month Contest, Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ Students of participating schools entered and were awarded 1st, 2nd prizes- Writing poetry and prose, responding to the poem, “Black Dandelion” and presenting, Gloria Coles Flint Public Library.
Founded and Directed Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ City of Flint Literacy Week, where April 7, 2025 was named Semaj Brown Day in the City of Flint. The literacy week expanded into a month-long engagement with neighboring cities, including Detroit: “Inside Out Literary,” East Pointe Library Presentation by Darolyn Brown and Sonya Pouncy, Ann Arbor, Holly, Grand Blanc Schools, on to New York, LaGuardia College, and Contra Costa County, California, Children and Family Services, and Togo Africa. Over 20 Black Dandelion workshops in different disciplines and locales presented via volunteering experts, including at Gloria Coles Library, in collaboration with Mott Warsh Collection, Broadside Lotus Press, in partnership with the Flint Institute of Arts, Internation Profession Educators Association, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Michigan Zeta Organization, Pierians, Inc.- Flint Chapter, and more
Flint Poet Laureate in Partnership with The Flint Institute of Arts (FIA) Presents The 3rd Annual Black Dandelion Convergent Voice™ Forum, “Art of Unimagined Ecosystems” where students’ written responses to the poem “Black Dandelion” inspired sculptures that imagined the yet to be imagined. Student Artwork was exhibited and students presented in coordination with FIA Dept. of Education, Director, Matthew Osmon
Semaj Brown creates and implements the course, “Aging Odyssey: through the Lens of Black Dandelion” Transformational Wellness 7-hour Interactive course and workshop created for a collective of women artists who were over the age of sixty in preparation for their art studio residency
2nd Ward Annual African American History Month Contest, Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice Students from participating schools entered and presented original poems that responded to the poem “Black Dandelion” and won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize awards, Gloria Coles Library
Genesse District Library System Features a Poetry Ready by Semaj Brown
HIP HOP Caucus, Barz and Ballots of Washington DC contacts Semaj Brown to headline, Comma Bookstore…Using artist platforms to raise awareness about how big-money influence shapes Michigan’s elections and energy policies, and to help collect signatures for a statewide ballot initiative designed to change that.
AWARD- Semaj Brown was awarded the Community Violence Intervention & Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Award, receives congratulatory letter from Michigan State Senator John Cherry for the Proposal: “Violence Intervention via Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™—The Poetry Literacy Solution”
2024
Flint Poet Laureate in Partnership with The Flint Institute of Arts (FIA) Presents The 2nd Annual Black Dandelion Convergent Voice™ Forum, “Where Art Meets Poetry,” Where students and Professors who engaged with the poem “Black Dandelion” presented poems, and papers, collages, in coordination with FIA Depart of Education, Director Matthew Osmon.
Flint Community Schools, “A Taste of Literacy” Farmers Market, Semaj Brown featured Literary Artist, reads poetry and discusses “PSL Poetry as a Second Language” about the need to expand Literacy Capacity
Grand Valley State University, Professor Sunanda Samaddar invites Semaj Brown is to lecture to undergraduate and graduate classes, From the Semajian Method Course Catalog Semaj lectures: “BD 101 Being Black Dandelion” and PSL 800 “The Semajian Classroom”
PSL/Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method or the S Method, integrates all aspects of learning with purpose and wonder. The process of utilizing poetry as a technology result in a transformational practice. The PSL pedagogy erupts in global empathy and consciousness which allows students and teachers to pursue ancient applications transmitted through a 21st Century lens. Semaj Brown’s centering on the power of words is a transcendent literacy tool. - Professor Sunanda Samaddar, PhD-International Comparative Education, Columbia University
Michigan Reading Association Conference, Semaj Brown was a Featured Presenter at the Michigan Reading Association Conference in Lansing; “PSL/Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method- Passcode to Literacy.”
RXKIDS Launch Features Semaj Brown in performance, “Black Dandelion” with Al Nur African Dance Troupe, Historic Capitol Theatre
2023
Artist/Educator in Residence at Flint Institute of Arts Art School- As Visiting Artist/ Educator Semaj Brown designed and Implemented the Course “Penning the Sublime: Ekphrastic Writing via PSL/Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method™” where classes of adult learners visited the galleries and attended interactive studio sessions designed by Semaj while exercising techniques in contextualized writing through the Semajian Method.
The 1st Annual Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ Forum, Gloria Coles Flint Public Library, where students of participating schools presented poems responding to the poem “Black Dandelion.” Panelists: Sunanda Samaddar, PhD, Darolyn Brown, Sonya Pouncy, and Edith Withey delivered papers regarding the poem “Black Dandelion” at the Gloria Coles Library
2023-2022
Black Enterprise authored stunning articles about the work of Semaj Brown: “AT&T Recognizes the Poem Black Dandelion and a New Multimedia Platform is Born” and “Transformative, Innovative—Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ Changes the Literacy Game.”
AT&T licenses an audio clip of Semaj Brown reading the poem, “Black Dandelion” to include as a focal point in a national year-long television commercial and social media campaign for “Dream in Black African American Afrofuturistic Lifestyle Platform.”
From Michigan to Hollywood, California, “Road to Joy,” WEHO (West Hollywood) Library System, Semaj Brown was a panelist during a round table national Online discussion regarding the role of the Poet Laureate, poetry, and Poet Laureate Programs
Las Angeles Library System, “State of the Nation: Eight Poets from Across the United States” Speak! Semaj was invited as one of eight from across the U.S. to discuss the political and social plight of communities and the impact of poetry as a change agent. (streamed)
2022
Academy of American Poets Dear Poet project, students around the country and the world wrote letters to the poet laureate in response to a video of her reading her poem “Black Dandelion”: https://poets.org/dear-semaj-brown-2022.
Semaj Brown, Keynote Speaker at Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) Centennial Conference, Lansing, where Ms. Brown presented her pedagogy and practice, PSL/Poetry as A Second Language: The Semajian Method.™ PSL utilizes poetry as a technology, a tool to expand literacy capacity, hone critical thinking skills, and implement Social Emotional Learning, (SEL) through an integrative lens.
Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ (BDCV) is Launched! The international multimedia, integrative literacy, and wellness, education platform that is based on the poem “Black Dandelion” is introduced at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) Centennial Conference during Semaj Brown’s Keynote Message.
“Brown’s keynote address was a vision. It was one of what education could be-and should be-in a just world that is equitable, diverse, and inclusive. She fused science, art, storytelling, and language into a tapestry for everyone in that room to discover. I think this is what led to her standing ovation: the perfectly articulated, intentional way that Semaj connected with every educator in the space in such a small time...” – Carrie Mattern, President of MCTE, 2022-3
2020
“Black Dandelion” the poem was written by Semaj Brown during the height of the COVID pandemic, and published in an Anthology, “Thoughts on the Power of Goodness, Editors, Timothy F. Crowley and Jaki Shelton Green, Chapel Hill Press. “Black Dandelion” with the accompanying integrative educational platform has captured the international imagination of many diverse communities who identify and celebrate the beauty, tenacity, and brilliance of the “Black Dandelion.”
Vote the Earth Where Am I From? Presented by WICK Poetry Center- Kent State University, Columbia University, and Earth Ethics.com National Campaign, Semaj Brown was selected in a national search of literary artists to represent the Midwest Bio region in a Vote the Earth Campaign Highlighting the Intersection between Ecology, Environmental Justice, and Race
Guest Lecturer, University of Michigan, Senior Trademark Law Class, Professor Susan M. Kornfield M. Bodman PLC, invites Semaj Brown to present her essay, “The Buying Frying, Making Baking of African American Domestic Stereotypes,” to her senior law classes, to date the essay is a part of the permanent syllabus, Professor Kornfield was a featured expert “In Conversation” at the 2026 University of Michigan-Symposium where she lauded Semaj Brown’s integrative scholarship.
Indiana University “Mother Ocean: Examining Power, Oppression and Complicity Series,” Semaj Brown was invited a feature lecturer on the epic poem “Mother Ocean,” Director of the Department of Social work, Professor Otrude N. Moyo PhD, MA., MS, Alumni Assoc, Center for Human Rights
“Listening to Semaj brought joy, physical and spiritual to me… kind of a cathartic experience. The comingling of different worlds, the tangible and intangible, had the power to calm me. Her voice, her words, and the spirit of sharing managed to lower my pressure. I had been struggling for a change. I felt light and conscious of all my being. Semaj creates new philosophies of wholeness.”
Michigan State University, in the series Teaching to Transgress: Centering Storytelling and Humanizing Pedagogies for liberation and Social Justice, Professor Raven Jones, PhD, “Mother Ocean: Odyssey Poem: Dissolving Obsolete Paradigms, Synthesizing New Realities through the Semajian Method,” Semaj Brown was guest lecturer
“Semaj, I still haven’t found the words to capture what your presence meant to us! There’s no one like you walking this earth! THANK YOU for EVERYTHING you do to lift the masses with your energy and genius! Anyone who experiences YOU is truly blessed!” -Dr. Raven Jones
2019-2020
University of Michigan-Flint, Department of Liberal Arts “WORD POWER,” and Friends Featuring the work of Semaj Brown, Professor Erica Britt, invites Semaj Brown to discuss several of her literary works including the essay, “Social Justice Eats the Entire Pi: Arguing for an Integrative, Interdisciplinary Pedagogy. Also, an examination of her poetry memoir “Bleeding Fire!”
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, “Bleeding Fire!” Poetry Theatrical Production, GM Auditorium and book launch, The Wright Museum invites Semaj Brown to express her literary work in the form of dramatization that included dance, music, and song.
2018
Boys and Girls Club of Greater Flint as educational consultant, Creating a Vegetable Consciousness™ through Science, Craft Work, Visual Arts, Music, and Theater, a 3-month program- Planted Kingdom™ Project of Health Collectors™ LLC, implemented via the inspired Sponsorship and generosity of Susan A. Kornfield.
2016
Detroit Independent Freedom Schools Movement (DIFS) at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Semaj Brown designed a Science Installation, “The Pop-Up Science Laboratory.” Curriculum Title: Seven Biology/Chemistry Experiments. Dr. James Brown, Mentor Medical Career Consultant to High School Students. Transformed was a non-classroom space into an exciting space of multi-level third 12th grade, science exploration.
“Project: Water Us” Semaj Brown collaborated with Flint Chapter Pierina’s to implement workshops that revealed how protest art, or art of resistance, impacted struggles for freedom and self-determination during the eras of Enslavement, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Movement, and Hip Hop. Semaj Brown Creative Director, Creative director of an arts program funded by the Pierian Foundation, Project Water Us, Boys and Girls Club (BGC) of Greater Flint.
Selected Education Innovations
“Extreme Poetry,” workshop designed and implemented for drug rehabilitation programs in Detroit. She was also “Everything is Word” Life Skills Social Services Division of Contra Costa County, California to bring her arts/science poetry workshop, for youth who were transitioning out of the foster care.
In the Detroit Public Schools, Semaj designed innovative science curricula. She served as a curriculum developer for the Creative and Gifted Department, and developed the Area A Initiative, Teaching from a Dialectical Perspective, collaborating with fellow chemistry teacher Valerie Boniswa Brock. Semaj created ten programs, including Rodentia Studies and Protocols, which involved a partnership with Wayne State University’s Department of Veterinary Studies, and Investigations into Drosophila: Genetics Probe for 6th Graders, funded by COMPACT, as well as the exhibit, The Cell as a City, an arts science initiative. Semaj was also involved in the River Rough Water Testing Restoration Project and was selected to be part of a state committee to establish a database in Biology education for the Skillman Foundation. All genres into which Semaj delved carried the DNA of poetry.
Semaj’s students won multiple local and international science fair awards, including first place in the NOBCCHE Science Bowl in Chicago. As a science educational consultant, Semaj applied her integrative pedagogy and was instrumental in assisting Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology to achieve the Golden Apple Award, elevating standardized test scores from statistically negligible. Semaj’s teaching methods, which she coined as Web Theory were the predecessor to PSL/Poetry as a Second Language: The Semajian Method, the merger of art and science, left-and right brain modalities, to challenge conventions in the way science, health education, the literary arts, literacy studies are taught.
Semaj in Theatre as Performer Director
2026- UAW African American History Month Celebration Performances
2025 – Hip Hop Caucus, Coma Bookstore, ballot Initiative toward a fair Utility rates system
2024- “Black Dandelion from Page to Stage,” Capitol Theatre- Flint for the launch of Dr. Mona Atisha’s historic initiative, RX KIDS.
2024- Voices of the Revolution (VOTR), pianist Adrienne Tort perform Flint UU Church, Poet Laureate Welcomes the Lansing/California group to Flint with a reading of “Where Am I From?”
2024- Historic St. Paul Episcopal Church, “The Love Story,” Integrative presentation of Poetry, art by Semaj and James Brown MD, along with the musical musing by Dr. Brown’s invented instrument-, The Arborlune™
2020- Poem-play, “Epoch: Something Called War,” is a commissioned writing, part of the weekend GALA COMMUNITY celebration of Contemporary African American Art, in response to the art piece by Lovell Whitfield, Epoch. “... Semaj is a poet, a priestess, a force of nature, of anger and of love...” -Jan Worth Nelson
2017/2019- “By Ocean, By Fire and Bleeding Fire!” Poetry Theatrical Productions, Charles Wright Museum of African American History
Selected Publishing
“Poet in the House: Ten Year Collaboration between Detroit Library System and Broadside Press,” editors: House, Brown, and Williams. Her editorial work, Penning the Sublime, Flint Institute of Arts is slated to be published in 2025. Her poems and essays are published in noted journals, to name few: American Poets, and Language Arts Journal of Michigan, as well as in anthologies: The Power of Goodness, Chapel Hill Press, Abandon Automobile, Wayne State University Press, Simple Machines 2: Epochal Shift, Art and Letterpress, “Where am I From?” Earth Ethics.com of Earth Ethics/Columbia University WICK Kent State University, Vote the Earth Project, “The Renaming of Cass Technical High School,” Michigan Public Radio, and River wise.
Media
Ms. Brown has been interviewed serially by Stateside, Michigan Radio, host April Behr, also NPR Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson, The Detroit News, My City Magazine, Flint Courier News, MLIVE/Flint Journal, ABC Channel 12, Dawn Jones, and Matt Barbour, Black Enterprise.com twice in articles noted the global recognition of the poet laureate’s educational platform, Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice. ™ including a recent feature by WNEM, Emmy winner, Elisse Ramey WATCH HERE
Earlier Poetry Work
“Wave Rock” the poem was turned into an art video by international Brookly based interdisciplinary artist, Jasmine Murrell. It became a cult signature work in urban centers during the early 2000s. Brown is the creator/director of Theatrical Poetry Productions: “By Ocean, By Fire,” “Bleeding Fire,” at The Charles H Wright Museum of African American History-Detroit with artists: Michell McKinney, James Brown MD, Sunanda Samaddar, Al Nur African Dance Troupe.
“Onion Revolt: A Healthy Comedy, Semaj plays fourteen different characters, Bower Theater. Older works include the play, “Womb Tongue” Director, the late, Sandra Hines, produced by the late Ron Allen, Scarab Club-Detroit, and Tongued, Tongued, with musical luminaries, the late Faruq Z. Bey, and Ras Kente, Clifford Sykes, and Isabralameem.
Semaj Brown Origins
A daughter of Detroit, a graduate of Wayne State University in Biological Sciences, Semaj Brown and once a student in the MAT program, Ms. Brown belongs to a group of Broadside Lotus Press poets referred to as “progeny” or next generation who emerged after the Black Arts Movement and the legacy poets of the 1960s and 70s, Dudley Randall, Sonia Sanchez, Haki Madhubuti, Audre Lourde, Etheridge Knight, and Pulitzer Prize recipient Gwendolyn Brooks. For almost 25 years, Semaj Brown has been a Flintstone by choice, residing with her husband/chief collaborator/partner, James Brown, MD. This duo are founders of Health Collectors™ LLC, a company since 2004, involved in servicing the community in innovative art/science health education programming with such initiatives as Planted kingdom, and Mrs. Brown’s Butterfly Building, and Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™
Archival Holdings
Ms. Brown’s work is archived at: The Flint Institute of Arts; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; Baruch College, NY, NY as part of Jasmine Murrell’s Immortal Uterus Installation, Black Love Interview; and “Cass Tech” Marygrove College Conservancy, Detroit, Earth Ethics.com website a collaboration with WICK POETRY CENTER, Kent State University, and Columbia University, and Center for Gender and Sexuality, University of Michigan-Flint
Ms. Brown is a member of Zeta Beta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. and a member of Flint Chapter Pierians, Inc, a national arts organization.