ARIANA BROWN is an performer ARIANABROWN.COM

ARIANA BROWN
is an
Afromexicana poet from San Antonio, Texas. She is the recipient of
the Andrew Julius Gutow Academy of American Poets Prize and was
recently awarded the title of Best Poet at the 2014 College Unions
Poetry Slam Invitational, a national competition in which her team
representing UT Austin, took first place. In 2015, she was awarded
the title of "Best Poem" for her piece, "Invocation". Ariana is
currently working on her first manuscript and pursuing a degree in
African & African Diaspora Studies at UT Austin, where she cofounded Spitshine Poetry Slam in 2011. When she is not onstage, she
is probably eating an avocado, listening to the Kumbia Kings, or
validating brown girl rage in all its miraculous forms. Her work is
forthcoming in the new anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poetry from Arte
Público Press and in Huizache.
booking
inquiries:
abrownpoetry@
gmail.com
performer
poet
ARIANABROWN.COM
The brilliance of Ariana Brown is her ability to
“
change the atmosphere with her voice. The
wonder of Ariana Brown is the way, in which, she
Ariana Brown is a necessary voice and force in our
conjures a spectacular honesty out of any word
communities. Her work is honest...it grapples, it paints, it
and commands it to break open all around her
dances, it pulls you under, and into her many worlds, and
always, always insists on survival. She matters.
- Denice Frohman
2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion
listener. The beauty of Ariana Brown is the
unyieldingness of her narrative; it is something
for the heart to witness, and I am sorry for
anyone who is less than fortunate.
- Sasha Banks
2013 Button Poetry Chapbook finalist
Ariana writes and reads her poetry the same way she
shows up in the world, deliberately and intentionally. She
reckons with what it means to be a brown girl, the ways in
which we have to insist on ourselves, and the vast
celebration of women, the ones we came from, and the
ones who have been too often pushed into the dustbin of
history. Ariana is thunderous. That should not be
confused with 'loud.' She proves that mountains can be
moved one low rumble at a time.
- Dominique Christina
Ariana Brown is a quiet storm with words and
2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion
the biggest heart on stage you will ever see.
She is poise and passion teaching you how to
value grace and color in one breath.
- Ebony Stewart
Ariana Brown speaks like gentle rain while her
poetry has the impact of rolling thunder.
- Amir Safi
2013 SoFried Indie Slam Champion
3-time Austin NeoSoul Slam Champion
”
How does one lose an accent? coat the tongue in ice and watch the frosted muscle forget all
its memories?
Mexico, a country which once included a third of the United States, is home to the largest
Spanish speaking population in the world. My grandmother attended public school in Texas
in the fifties, before it was legal to speak her native tongue in a classroom. As a child, my
mother tells me I am “African American Mexican”. This means nothing to me. Often, she
instructs me to speak like I have heritage, respect, a mouth of my own. But in Texas,
Mexicans who speak Spanish are also called niggers.
2. 48% of the world’s black population resides in Latin America.
3. The first time I heard mariachis was in a restaurant, or at a parade, or an outdoor theater
somewhere. I remember admiring the lone woman in the group, her green polyester, the way
she made her whole body a song, the whole song a mountain, her mouth a red sun spilling
with hurt.
4. Years later, at a play in my hometown of San Antonio, a stranger asks me a question in
Spanish. I answer, pronouncing each syllable with the pride I inherited.
Frustrating, how it is easier to communicate with a stranger than my own grandmother, that
despite four and a half years of Spanish classes, I am still afraid that in front of my family,
my shivering tongue will shake to a western rhythm, dry out, and die.
5. In Austin, it is normal to insult a Mexican street name, extract its religion and graze it
irreverently down to Gwad-uh-loop instead of troubling oneself with Guadalupe, the
patroness of Mexican people, la morena, dark like we are, sacred like our names have always
been.
6. I am always amazed that the ability to forget history is a choice for some people, instead
of an ancestral battle against hating the self and all its words for being.
7. Can you still be considered an immigrant if you are travelling to a place that was yours to
begin with?
8. When I correct other people’s Spanish, I am often met with a laugh and the occasional
“I’m white” as if that was an excuse to be anything but sorry.
9. Each letter in the Spanish alphabet will almost always make the same sound, no matter
what word it appears in. Despite the excuses, pronunciation is not difficult.
10. My mother’s favorite mariachi song is “Volver, Volver”, a story of unrequited love and
the desire to come home.
11. In times of crisis, the mouth will bake the air inside it, choose to remain silent to survive.
The slow heat produces a small sun. To keep the sun from breaking on its way out of the
mouth, the tongue must reacquaint itself with the work of legacy.
12. The work is never done.
© Ariana Brown 2014-2015
1. Nigger wraps itself around the coils of my hair and speaks. The beginning of mirrors is the
beginning of the end. I am six years old and ending all over.