We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittny Ray crowell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brittny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was participating as a librettist for The Kennedy Center’s Cartography Project. Previously, I had the privilege of collaborating with the incredible composer Brittney (B.E.) Boykins on a beautiful work titled “Stardust,” a song commissioned by Marcus J. Jauregui for the Pershing Middle School Treble Choir in Houston for the Texas Music Educators Convention Performance. Afterwards, Brittney graciously invited me to work with her again. I didn’t know it was for the Kennedy Center until we entered the virtual meeting! The project’s aim was to provide dignity and reverence for victims of police brutality and racial violence. We were ultimately assigned to create a piece based on Rayshard Brooks. It was important to me to write a poem in his voice to restore the power that had been stolen from him so tragically. I incorporated his love of dance and references to his children, Dream, Memory, Blessing, and Mekai. This project reminds me that art is a necessary form of protest, remembrance, and healing (as best we can) in the face of perpetual trauma.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m originally from Texarkana, TX. I come from a family of hardworking folks and educators who always nurtured my love of writing. Under the guidance of Sharan Strange, Opal Moore, Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper and other great professors at Spelman College, I began to delve more into the craft of writing creatively and as a scholar. After a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Thailand, I came back home and officially started my teaching career at my high school alma mater while writing for local publications on the side. This period was pivotal in terms of developing a creative teaching and writing practice. I wanted my students to see writing as a means of expression and empowerment through a variety of different genres and forms, particularly those that challenged and redefined tradition. Since then, in addition to my own writing projects, I have continued to instruct creative writing workshops for a variety of audiences and organizations including Inprint Houston and Writers in the Schools. I currently facilitate a series of monthly creative writing workshops honoring memories associated with Black food culture, rituals, and traditions. Overall, what excites me most about my work is helping writers of all ages to view the craft as an opportunity to create a personal archive of experiences. I am particularly passionate about the development of creative writing opportunities and programs at HBCUs. It’s an honor to work in this capacity as an assistant professor of English at Clark Atlanta University. My own creative work often combines poetry with other genres and mediums (video, collage, etc) to act as forms of familial and ancestral reverence.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Whether I’m writing poetry, creating collages, or teaching, my ultimate goal is to create infinite dimensions of reverence for the people and places I love. The majority of my writing and artwork focuses on my family back in Texarkana and the Ark-La-Tex. It’s not enough for their memory to live with me alone, so my work is a way to infinitely project their names and the beauty of their lives on repeat. Teaching allows me to do the same thing on a collective level in terms of Black culture. I love being in dialogue with my students about how we’ve challenged and redefined the archive in terms of how we’ve written and shaped ourselves in the past, present, and future.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Prior to relocating to Atlanta, I moved to Houston to pursue my PhD before applying and being accepted to the program. Uprooting my child and husband was scary, but a risk we felt was worth the uncertainty. I hadn’t written poetry extensively for the better part of ten years, but I applied anyway even after getting rejected in another genre the year before. I just ran towards fear and trusted God would figure things out. In addition to family tragedies, natural disasters, and the pandemic, I gave birth to my youngest daughter towards the end of my program. Overall, everything about being a writer/artist is rooted in resilience. The self doubt and numerous rejections from publications can really wear you down, but you have to trust the quiet knowing underneath all the chaos that you are exactly who you think you are, and that the work you produce is valuable and necessary in a way no one else could create it but you, whether you’re widely recognized or not.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brittnyraycrowell.com/
• Instagram: @flyrighteousteacher
• Linkedin: brittny ray crowell
• Twitter: @braycrowell
• Other: Eventbrite: Saving Recipes Black Food Project