FLINT, Mich. - ColoradoDesk -- Mayor Sheldon Neeley, and Flint City Council president, Dr. Ladel Lewis are formally announcing The Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™City of Flint Literacy Week  (BDCVCOFLW) during National Poetry Month, April 2025. Semaj Brown, Flint's Poet Laureate internationally recognized for creating an integrative-literacy education platform from her poem Black Dandelion, will be recognized for her breaking work that has proven to expand literacy capacity, increase critical thinking skills, and build self-esteem via public presentation through a Social Emotional Equitable Learning lens among the children of Flint, and beyond.

"Semaj Brown is a literary visionary. Her passion for poetry and working with young scholars is unmatched. She uses poetry to educate, connect, and ignite the imagination of the next generation of leaders," states Dr. Ladel Lewis.

More on Colorado Desk

• ACCU, Inc. Enhances Website by Updating Page on HOA Accounting Services
• Elevate Local Launches to Help Tennessee Small Businesses Grow Online with Expert SEO and Digital Marketing
• Boost Rankings with Agentic AI: Live Webinar on AI-Powered Micro-SEO Strategies℠
• Olga Torres Once Again Recognized as a Top Advisor by Foreign Investment Watch
• $300 Million in Milestones; Double-Digit Royalties; Neurospa LOI for Expansion of International Psychiatry Clinics plus NDA Filed with FDA on New Drug

The proclamation of The Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ City of Flint Literacy Week will formally take place on April 7, 2025 at the Flint City Dome, at 10 a.m.

The week-long celebration will put the Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™(BDCV) integrative  multimedia education platform into effect. The week will be filled with activities involving the arts and Open Mics, while uplifting the goal of literacy. There will be "Gather and Grow" professional and student presentations, and activities for both the young, and those young at heart. The city-wide games and puzzles are integrated into the activities, making learning a fun intergenerational experience.

The sponsoring Institutions of the week-long festivities are: City of Flint/CVIPI, Genesee Health System, and Molina Healthcare.

The partnering institutions are: Flint Institute of Arts; Gloria Coles Flint Public Library; RxKIDS; Pierians, Inc. Flint; MSO Michigan State Zeta Organization; MCTE- Michigan Council of Teachers of English; University of Michigan-Flint (Selected Departments); Broadside Lotus Press; Insideout Literary Arts; Family Services Contra Costa County, CA; and as collaborators Mott Warsh Gallery home to the Mott Warsh Collection, and more.

More on Colorado Desk

• Spartan Investigations Partners with Dallas Law Enforcement to Combat Human Trafficking
• Torture in the Troubled Teen Industry, Death by Deliberate Indifference Report
• High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric offers tips to lower utility bills
• Florida Supreme Court Grants Petition Alleging Judicial Misconduct,in the Ninth Judicial Circuit
• Blue Luna Responds to Rising Demand for Women's Self-Defense Tools

All the activities for the Black Dandelion: Convergent Voice™ City of Flint Literacy Week are FREE of charge to the public. Community groups that would like to participate in the BDCVCOFLW, or to host their own, email: contact@semajbrown.com for information and deadlines.

About Semaj Brown: She is Flint, Michigan's inaugural Poet Laureate and the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship Award, 2021. Semaj was Visiting Artist/Educator/Editor at The Flint Institute of Arts, Art School, 2023. She is the recipient of the 2024 Poetry Foundation Poetry Programs, Partnerships and Innovation Grant. In 2025, the recipient of the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative Grant for Black Dandelion. Brown is also an award-winning educator and author of the book, Bleeding Fire! Tap the Eternal Spring of Regenerative Light, Broadside Lotus Press. An excerpted recording of Brown reading her poem, Black Dandelion is highlighted in the national AT&T Dream in Black, Black Future Makers Afrofuturistic Lifestyle television commercial.