Ariana Brown facts for kids

Ariana Brown is an American spoken word poet from San Antonio, Texas. She is known for her powerful performances and her writing. In 2014, she was part of a team that won a national college poetry competition. She also won the "Best Poet" award twice at this event. Ariana Brown has received the Academy of American Poets Prize two times. Her first small poetry book, called Sana Sana, came out in early 2020.

About Ariana Brown

Early Life and School

Ariana Brown was born in San Antonio, Texas. Her father was Black American, and her mother is Mexican American. Ariana identifies as a Black Mexican American person. When she was growing up, she found it hard to see people like her in books. This made her want to write poems for young women who also felt this way. She was also inspired by Black leaders like Malcolm X.

In 2011, she helped start her first poetry slam team called Spitshine Slam. They performed at an event called Brave New Voices. In 2014, her team won first place at the College Unions Poetry Slam International (CUPSI).

Ariana studied at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a Bachelor's degree. She also earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently working on a new poetry book about her life and how she understands her identity.

Her Poetry and Performances

Ariana Brown continues to take part in poetry slams and has performed her poems all over the United States. She often leads workshops where she teaches people how to write poetry that helps them heal. She has performed in many places, including the San Antonio Guadalupe Theater and the San Francisco Opera Theatre.

Ariana writes poetry to celebrate Black people and honor her ancestors. She wants to inspire and uplift communities that feel left out. She also uses her poetry to show that it's okay for Black girls to feel angry about unfairness. She writes about anti-Blackness within the Mexican community and supports Black Chicanx individuals. Some people call her a "part-time curandera" because her poetry helps heal issues related to race, background, and identity. She often includes current events and challenges in her poems.

In 2021, Ariana Brown's first full poetry collection, “We Are Owed,” was published after six years of work. This book is special because it mixes poems with notes from her college classes, making it feel like a diary and a history book. In this collection, Ariana explores what it means to be queer and Black while also being Mexican American.

Her poems also bring attention to important Black historical figures whose stories are often forgotten, like Gaspar Yanga and Estevanico. Ariana has said she was frustrated having to rely on online videos to learn about Black history. Because of this, she wrote several poems about Yanga, including "Letter to Yanga, from Six-Year-Old Ariana." In this poem, she asks Yanga to send her a picture of himself. She later accepts that she can't find an image of him online and decides to "try harder to love my own face, nose, lips, hair."

She also talks about how Black Chicanx people are often not shown correctly in popular culture, like in the game Lotería. Ariana also shares her experience studying abroad in Mexico City, where she was the only Black person on her trip. There, she felt disconnected from Latino culture because Afro-Latinos are often ignored, and she found it hard to connect. She highlights how Blackness is often erased in Mexico and talks about the challenges Afro-Latinos face, including feeling alone and dealing with anti-Black feelings.

In 2020, Ariana Brown published her poetry chapbook, Sana Sana. This collection of poems explores her life as a Black woman, dealing with love, life, and womanhood. The book's title is inspired by the saying “Sana Sana, colita de rana, si no sana hoy, sana en la mañana,” which is about healing. Ariana says this book shows how her writing helps her heal.

Her work has been featured in PBS, Huffington Post, Blavity, For Harriet, and Remezcla, among other places.

Ariana Brown's poem "Inhale: The Ceremony" shows her connection to her ancestors and talks about the often-ignored history of Afro-Latinas. She notes that people often see her only as Black, overlooking her Latina identity, which can make her feel isolated. Through her work, Ariana wants to make these different parts of her identity visible and challenge old stories that have left them out.

In 2024, her work was part of Xican-a.o.x. Body, a big art show about the experiences and contributions of Chicano artists in modern culture. The show was displayed at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in California and later at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in Florida.

Ariana Brown's poem "A Division of Gods" explores how identity, colonization, and history are connected during a visit to Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Through this poem, Ariana invites readers to think about the difficult truths of colonization and how it still affects identity and cultural memory. She encourages a deeper understanding of the histories that shape our present.

Personal Life and Identity

Ariana Brown, a Black Mexican American poet, has openly talked about her complex feelings about her identity. She was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and her father was African American, and her mother was Mexican American. Her experiences as a queer, Blaxican woman have greatly influenced her work. She uses poetry to explore themes of racial identity, cultural politics, and how Blackness is sometimes ignored in Mexican communities.

Ariana openly embraces both her Black and Mexican heritage, even though she has faced anti-Blackness within the Mexican community. She remembers being called a hurtful word at age five and her elementary school principal telling her that her hair was "outlandish" and distracting.

Ariana's strong interest in her family history comes from her father passing away before she was born. This led her to think deeply about her heritage and the importance of connecting with ancestors. This focus on identity is clear in much of her work, including her first chapbook Sana Sana and her poetry collection We Are Owed. Her poems often deal with how race, background, and gender connect. She speaks honestly about the challenges of finding her place in both Black and Latinx communities.

Besides her writing, Ariana is also a part-time curandera, which shows her focus on healing in her work. She includes themes of emotional and spiritual healing, drawing from her experiences in poetry slams and her growing understanding of history and identity.

Ariana Brown has become the role model she wished she had when she was younger by exploring the complexities of her identity through her poetry. Growing up, she struggled to find examples of Afro-Latina women from working-class backgrounds in books and her community. This lack of relatable figures motivated her to create work that recognizes and celebrates all parts of her heritage.

In an interview called "I belong in my community: A Conversation with Ariana Brown," Ariana discussed how much her community influences her work and who she is. She felt disconnected from the academic world during her Master's program at the University of Pittsburgh. She said, "If anything, my time at Pitt reminded me that I do not belong in the university, nor do I want to be there. I belong in my community."

In high school, Ariana was inspired by the autobiography of Malcolm X. She admired how he used words to get attention and push for change. This made her realize that mastering language could help her navigate the world. She started writing poems about her experiences in a mostly Mexican community and eventually performed them on slam poetry stages.

Awards and Recognition

• Ranked first overall at the College Unions Poetry Slam International (CUPSI) in 2014.
• Received the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, San Antonio Artist Grant in 2019.

Published Works

• We Are Owed, Grieveland, July 2021.
• Sana Sana (debut poetry chapbook), Game Over Books, January 2020.
• LET US BE ENOUGH (debut poetry EP), February 22, 2019.
• “quaker blake” Barrelhouse Magazine, December 9, 2018.
• “Alternate Memory, or Love Dances Barefoot After the Men Have Disappeared” Barrelhouse Magazine, December 9, 2018.
• “Introductions” Scalawag Magazine, October 1, 2018.
• “In Defense of Santana’s ‘Maria Maria,’ Featuring Wyclef & the Product G&B” Rattle, January 29, 2018.
• “Minute Fathers” Sidekick Lit, Issue Four.
• “A Division of Gods” Winter Tangerine, 2017.
• “Abuela, de Carrizo Springs” As/Us, September 17, 2017.
• “Supremacy” Muzzle, June 2017.
• “Nylon, Black, ‘72” BOAAT.
• “At the End of the Sword” Neptantla, Issue 3.
• “Always, There is Music” African Voices, July 8, 2016.
• “Don’t Know Nobody from Ellis Island” Bird’s Thumb, June 2016.
• “Invocation” & “Sunday Morning” HEArt Online, April 4, 2016.
• “Ossuary” Rattle: Poets Respond, October 25, 2015.