Margie ‘Mia X’ Johnson
Margie “Mia X” Johnson is a spoken word artist, writer and poet, community activist, organizer, teaching artist, and mother. She focuses on community outreach, particularly youth development. She has a BA in African American Studies at Temple University. Johnson is the founder, producer, and primary host of the longest continuously running open mic, “The People’s Open Mic” at the Gallery Aferro. She is also the creator, producer, and organizer of “Hug the Block”, a series of events that started in 2012 featuring poetry, visual art, and live music. In 2018, Johnson self-published her first poetry collection, “Norky”.
About her work in WOV II:
“She Rose” is the poem included in “A Womb of Violet: Volume II.” Johnson uses the word “rose” both to talk about a woman who rose “up from a crack / in the ground”, and a metaphor about the woman being a flower (“her thorns shined / blue under the streetlights”). The poem articulates the use of music, art, and writing to think and explore, and references her struggles and ability to rise, heal, and express herself: “her reality was grey / She / needed something silver.”