Mary E. Weems, (M.A., Ph.D.), is a poet, playwright, author, performer, imagination-intellect theorist, and social/cultural foundations scholar. Weems is the author of more than thirteen books including Black Poetic Inquiry: A Daily Writing Project on Race, Culture, and Life (Routledge, 2025), Performative Intergenerational Dialogues of a Black Quartet (Routledge, 2023), Collaborative Spirit-Writing in Everyday Black Lives ((Routledge, 2022) Still Hanging: Using Performance Texts to Deconstruct Racism (Brill/Sense, 2021) with Co-Author Dr. Bryant Keith Alexander; Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues (Sense Publishing, 2015), five chapbooks, most notably white (Wick Chapbook), and numerous poems, articles and book chapters. Weems plays and/or excerpts have been published or produced since 1997 including three one-woman shows; and Fall and Response her third book of poems, was released by Africa World Press in 2024.
In 2023, Mary Weems produced her first short film “Socks,” based on her play of the same title. To date, “Socks” directed by Ashley Aquilla, and Lonnie El, Cinematographer/Editor, featuring Laprise Johnson, has won numerous Independent Film Awards including six (6) for “Best Short Film:” Dr. Weems was awarded the “Best Short” play in the 2021 Downtown Urban Arts Festival in New York for her play “Slapped.” and in 2024 she produced it as a short film. To date, “Slapped” has also won several Independent Film Awards including three (3) for “Best Short Film.”
Weems’ received the 2015 Cleveland Arts Prize’s Award in Literature for her full-length drama MEAT; and both of her previous books of poems An Unmistakable Shade of Red and the Obama Chronicles (Bottom Dog Press, 2008), and For(e)closure (Main Street Rag, 2012) were finalists for Ohioana Book Awards. Weems has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Dr. Weems may be reached at www.maryeweems.org