Stevona Elem-Rogers is a writer, educator, and cultural worker who tells the truth about Black women’s lives, with a love that wants us seen. Felt. Known. Named. 

She blends Toni Morrison’s depth with Gangsta Boo’s raw Southern charisma, moving from kitchen-table wisdom to sharp cultural critique, always in celebration of Black women’s brilliance and complexity.

She’s the creator of Black Women Are For Grown-Ups (BWAFGU), a nationally recognized campaign that started with a bold t-shirt and has since grown into a living archive, she’s driven projects like the first Little Free Library in the U.S. dedicated to Black women writers, with signed works from icons like Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and more.

Her writing appears in The New York Times with Cleo Wade, in i-D Magazine profiling Solange Knowles, and in Essence, where her love letter “Dear New Orleans” became the Festival’s 30th anniversary cover story. Her work has been archived and celebrated by institutions including Saint Heron, Xavier University of Louisiana, the Amistad Research Center, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Off the page, she’s a sought-after speaker and moderator, bringing lived authority to conversations with visionaries like Janelle Monáe, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, and Nikole Hannah-Jones.

A founding visionary of Black Education for New Orleans (BE NOLA), she created Black Is Brilliant, a Harvard-recognized platform that honors Black educators, through flagship programs and cultural projects.

She holds a B.A. in English and AFAM Studies from The University of Alabama, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Louisiana College with a focus on Culturally Responsive Teaching, is a 2007 Teach For America–GNO alum, and a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

And if you don’t know her from all that, you might remember the viral July 4th rant that put Anna Murray Douglass in America’s memory, reminding the world: Black women are the blueprint.

Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she has called New Orleans home for nearly two decades, surrounded by books and brass bands.