About Me
Dr. Brenda M. Greene is Professor of English and Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. Professor Greene’s research and scholarship include African American literature, composition, and multicultural literature. She is editor of The African Presence and Influence on the Cultures of the Americas and co-editor of Resistance and Transformation: Conversations with Black Writers; Meditations and Ascensions: Black Writers on Writing; Redefining Ourselves, Black Writers in the Nineties; and Rethinking American Literature and she has written extensive essays, book reviews, and grants in English Studies. For more information visit www.drbrendamgreene.com.
Known as a literary activist over the years, Dr. Greene has consistently pursued her passion of expanding, broadening, and enriching the public’s knowledge and aesthetic appreciation of the value of the literature produced by Black writers and is the visionary behind groundbreaking public and academic programs that support Black Writers. Her educational leadership and professional accomplishments span more than 50 years. She has also been the host of the long-running weekly program, Writers on Writing, heard on New York airwaves (WNYE, 91.5 FM) and globally online. The program features writers of the African Diaspora discussing their lives, their creative process, and their work (novels, poems, plays, nonfiction, and more).
Dr. Greene has been inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. Her awards include the Lucille Rose Living Legend Award from the Brooklyn Chapter of the NAACP; include the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award from the Brooklyn United Scholarship Association, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Brooklyn Oldtimers Foundation, the Lynnette Velasco Community Impact Award sponsored by the Harlem Arts
Festival, the Educational Leadership Award sponsored by the MEC Community Council, the City College Women in Arts and Culture Award, the Phenomenal Women in the Media Award sponsored by Our Time Press; the Betty Smith Arts Award from the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office; and the National Conference of Artists Award for Excellence in the Promotion of Black Literature. She was also appointed as a member of the CUNY Planning
Commission on Black, Race and Ethnic Studies and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Black Studies Education Equity Action Plan Coalition.
Dr. Greene is the proud mother of two sons, Talib Kweli Greene, an internationally known hip hop artist, Jamal K. Greene, Professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia University. For more information
visit www.drbrendamgreene.com