Camara Brown
Camara Brown is poet, interdisciplinary scholar, and Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Harvard University where she writes about friendship, poetry, care, gender, sexuality, Black feminisms, and transnational women of color feminisms. Her dissertation titled, "The Intimacy They Were Looking For: Black Women Theorizing Feminism and Friendship, 1900-1988" unearths an archive of Black feminist friendship where women articulated and imagined friendship as essential to Black feminisms and freedom struggles. Her poetry has been published in The Adroit Journal, Bedfellows, and The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks as well as circulated in a collection curated by poet Laynie Browne titled Solidarity Texts.
The impact of poetry and the spoken word club
Oak Park's Spoken Word Club introduced me to my favorite writers and friends. This club was the place where I first read poems by Terrance Hayes and Patricia Smith, who are still some of my favorite poets. The club introduced me to poetry from all over the world as well as friends that lived only a few blocks from me. It was through Spoken Word that I developed my craft alongside inspiring, sincere, brilliant, brave, and committed young people. Because of what I learned in Spoken Word from friends and teachers, I sharpened my own poetry and got noticed by a recruiter from the University of Pennsylvania who was looking for talented writers. She was interested in me! Long story short, I went to Penn and was deeply involved in poetry there as well. I know my love of poetry, writing in community, and life-long friendships wouldn't have been possible without the Spoken Word Club.
Top favorite poets or lyricists
Poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Patricia Smith and Tracie Morris
Lyricists: Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell, and Chika
Writing Prompts
Write about a time you combined forces with other people to accomplish something important to you
”Most days I’m holding back a_______” (After, “most days I feel like I’m holding back a wave.”)
Write about something you have protested against or want to protest against.