Hey everybody, it's me, Tracy, and I've got some exciting news for you. This year, the Stax is turning

eight years old, and we are celebrating with our very first meetup day. On Saturday, April 4th,

we are inviting you all to meet up in cities across the country and around the world to hang out,

play games, and build community around our shared love of all things, books,

reading, and of course, snacks.

Head to the stackspodcast.com slash meetup for more information.

Over there, you're going to find a list of all the cities we have meetup scheduled for.

You'll be able to RSVP.

And if you don't see a meetup near you, there's also information on how you can host one.

Again, the website is the stackspodcast.com slash meetup, and meetup day is April 4th. This young man, you may know him named Jason Reynolds, I could always find him at Peach's Bar, and I would come in and he'd be like, when you're going to write that book? To which I responded, I write unlawfully. They don't want this. They're not going to teach this in schools. And he said, the kids talk like that too, Mo. They need your voice. I decided, all right, I gave it a shot. And it was a poem that I read called Blurred Vision. And I read that poem at Girls Right Now.

Two editors came up to me and asked,

are you working on a young adult novel?

I wasn't.

But I said, mm-hmm.

Actually, this is it.

I'm almost finished.

And that was the beginning.

Welcome to the Stacks, a podcast about books and the people who read them.

I'm your host, Tracy Thomas, and today I am joined by poet, writer, organizer, and educator, Mahogany L. Brown.

Mahogany is the author of several novels and poetry collections, including the National Book Award long-listed, interconnected short story collection, a bird in the air means

we can still breathe, and woke a young poet's call to justice.

Today we discuss her journey from Oakland, California to critically acclaimed poet.

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