Amena Brown is a writer, spoken word poet, and performing artist, whose work interweaves keep-it-real storytelling, rhyme, and humor. The author of five spoken word albums and two non-fiction books, Amena’s poetry was featured in the New York Times’ bestselling book Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal. Amena’s essay “Period Playlist” was featured in Hungry Hearts: Essays on Courage, Desire and Belonging, alongside essays by Ashley C. Ford, Bozoma Saint John, and Sue Monk Kidd. She was also a 2022 The Watering Hole Poetry Fellow.

Amena’s performance of her poem “Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl” was featured on TV series, Social Society, on ALL BLK TV. In 2021, Amena was featured in Olay’s Face Anything campaign alongside Jennifer Hudson and Busy Phillips. She is also the poetic partner for PATTERN Beauty, award-winning actress, producer, and activist Tracee Ellis Ross’ natural hair care brand.

A proud graduate of Spelman College, some of Amena’s most popular spoken word videos are “Letter to My Hair,” where she writes about her natural hair journey, “Dear TV Sitcoms,” a nostalgic piece about the lessons we can learn from sitcoms, “Girlfriends Poem,” where she writes about the importance of friendship among women, and “For the Women” a poem she wrote to honor women of color for International Women’s Day. Collectively these poems have reached over 400,000 views on Facebook Video.

Amena is the current co-executive producer and co-host of the Wake Up and Create podcast, in partnership with WABE/NPR and CreativeMornings Atlanta. She has also cultivated conversation as the former podcast host of HER with Amena Brown, Hello Sunshine’s podcast: Hungry Hearts, and How to Fix a Broken Record. Amena received the Seneca Women Podcast Award at the 2021 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. 

From performing at global events such as the MAKERS Conference and Creativity World Forum to hosting at events such as Pantene’s My Black is Beautiful Tour and Essence Festival’s Beauty Carnival Stage, Amena takes arenas, theaters, and performance venues and turns them into living rooms, where performance becomes conversation and builds community. Amena has had the honor of sharing stage with many great artists, authors, and thinkers such as Sonia Sanchez, Pearl Cleage, Cornel West, Mindy Kaling, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Michelle Buteau, and many others. 

Amena lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband DJ Opdiggy and their dog Kane, where she is the chapter host of CreativeMornings Atlanta.

Amena is represented by Celeste Debro of TAP Management.