Collections by Michelle Brown WSG Michelle S Johnson Founder of Playgrown

Johnson calls both Saginaw and Kalamazoo, Michigan home. She has been a public scholar teaching at Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, Saginaw Valley State University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

She was one of the co-founders and Executive Directors of Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative in Kalamazoo. And every Saturday morning as DJ Disobedience she hosts Radio "Slip Back Soul" on Kalamazoo’s WIDR 89.1 FM.

She formed Playgrown in 2003 with an eye on creating play spaces and experiences for teens and adults. Playgrown creates accessible intergenerational play spaces and exercise opportunities that provide transformative principles of play for populations of play-deprived teens and adults.

Playgrown partnered with play organizers like interplay to create spaces and generate experiences in existing places to bring people together to play across age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicities, and physical abilities.

She applied for and received an Arcus Center for Social Justice and Leadership fellowship at Kalamazoo College from September 2011 to April 2012. During this fellowship, she researched multi and intergenerational play and focused on how play functions as a basic need. Dr. Johnson collected local, national and international data and visited playground organizers and manufacturers in parts of Europe.

Beginning in Kalamazoo the project will grow to collaborate with stakeholders such as employable neighbors, urban farmers and other cultural producers to provide a café and studio lodging.