Author, Educator, Activist, Facilitator
I Call My Own Name
Publication details coming soon
Dionne Grayman brings together storytelling, education, culture, and community to create meaningful conversations and experiences. From speaking engagements and collaborations to thoughtfully curated events, her work invites people to connect, reflect, and imagine what’s possible.
Maya Angelou meets Mary J. Blige
Join me on this journey- step into your own transformation
I Call My Own Name
A memoir of a Black woman’s journey through single motherhood in the ‘90s, moonlighting as an MC, who goes on to become an English teacher in Brooklyn.
Blending story, bars, scripture, and soulwork, I Call My Own Name traces the head-to-knee-bending, humbling, and healing journey of a woman remembering herself whole. It’s about that hand-on-the-doorknob moment when it becomes less important to be called by name, and infinitely more powerful to decide to call your own, and the courage it takes to open the door and walk on through.
This chapter is still unfolding
I Call My Own Name is on its way to readers, and publication details will be shared soon. In the meantime, stay close to the journey. Stay connected on social media for updates to be the first to know about release news, readings, and conversations with Dionne as this book finds its home in the world.
Beyond the Page
While the book finds its home, Dionne's work continues in classrooms, communities, and gatherings across Brooklyn and beyond. The themes at the heart of I Call My Own Name (voice, belonging, and remembering ourselves whole) shape every conversation, collaboration, and experience she brings into the world.
Who is Dionne?
Dionne Grayman is an author, systems strategist, and self-described Homegirl Cosmologist, making meaning of power, belonging, and the conditions that shape how we live and lead. Bloomed in Brooklyn as a third-generation native and shaped by her decades as an educator across schools, communities, and leadership spaces, she explores what it means to navigate rupture, reclaim voice, and build lives that reflect what we know to be true.
She is the founder of River Ritual, a practice and systems design consultancy, and the co-founder of We Run Brownsville, both of which serve as living models for leadership and economic dignity grounded in healing and community.
As a mother, facilitator, and cultural storyteller, Dionne brings a lens of care, whole selfhood, and lived experience to her writing, offering reflections that are both deeply personal and collectively resonant. I Call My Own Name is her first book.
Connect With Dionne
Collaborations
Dionne partners with leaders, organizations, and creative collaborators to design work that is reflective, relational, and grounded in real-world impact.
Speaker Inquiries
Dionne brings a voice that is both incisive and deeply soulful to stages, panels, and classrooms.
Events
Dionne curates and facilitates experiences that center reflection, connection, and collective care.