Exhibit Opening Reception – Space for Us: Afrofuturism and the Poetic Imagination

Join us for an exclusive evening as we celebrate the grand opening of Space for Us: Afrofuturism and the Poetic Imagination. Showcasing the captivating works of Aris Kian Brown  as part of her community outreach project as Houston’s 2023-2025 Poet Laureate. This exhibition challenges the boundaries between art and organizing, protest and poetics, imagination and demand.

The reception will offer an opportunity to meet the artist, engage with the pieces, and enjoy an evening of art, conversation, and refreshments. Don’t miss out on this chance to experience the transformative power of art.

This event is free and open to the public.

About Aris Kian Brown

Aris Kian is currently the Houston Poet Laureate 2023-2025 and ranked #2 in the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam. Previously an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, she received her MFA from the University of Houston. She was ranked #10 in the 2020 Women of the World Poetry Slam and #4 in the nation at the 2019 ACUI College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational with UH team Coogslam. She is a current member of Smoke Slam alongside LeChell “The Shootah”, R.J. Wright, Blacqwildflowr, and Sherrika Mitchell, coached by Ebony Stewart, which ranked #1 at the 2024 Southern Fried Poetry Slam.

She is one of 25 recipients of the 2023 BIPOC Artist and Network Fund Awards and the 2022 recipient of the Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing for Students with Service to the Houston Literary Community. She is a 2019 Pushcart nominee, a 2020 Best of the Net finalist, a 2021 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize finalist and a 2022 New Voices Contest finalist with Frontier Poetry. She was co-granted a 2023-2024 Creative Catalyst award from the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund with collaborator Sonny Mehta, with Riyaaz Qawwali.