Stevona Elem-Rogers (Stevie, like Wonder!) is a writer, educator, and cultural worker bearing witness to Black life with tenderness, clarity, and the South rolling off her tongue. Raised in Titusville, a Birmingham neighborhood founded by self-emancipated people, she was shaped by beautifiers, storytellers, and grassroots strategists whose freedom dreams still guide her work.
She is the founder of Black Women Are For Grown-Ups (BWAFGU), a viral mantra turned social arts project amplifying Black women’s full humanity through writing, curated objects, and gatherings, and a co-founder of Black Education for New Orleans and Black Is Brilliant, a Harvard-recognized ecosystem honoring Black-founded schools and educators as creative and intellectual leaders.
Stevona has written for The New York Times, i-D, and Essence, where her cover story “Dear New Orleans” marked the Essence Festival’s 30th anniversary. Named one of Refinery29’s “20 Black Women You Should Know,” her work blends literature, archives, and immersive experiences to honor Black interior life and its boundless brilliance.
For two decades, she has been writing, world-building, and wobblin’ to Cash Money Records in New Orleans.
