The list of accomplishments on Alex Flowers’ résumé is long and lauded: the first African American male selected for the University of Chicago’s Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program at the National Institutes of Health, the first African American to earn an NIH Minority Health International Research Training Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, a master’s degree in biotechnology and chemical science from Roosevelt University, studying in the pharmacy school at UNC-Chapel Hill. (And this is only a partial list!)
However, Alex found true fulfillment by fusing the study of STEM subjects with hip-hop music through his Fuquay-based organization, BrainSTEMology.
Origin: I developed BrainSTEMology when I was in pharmacy school, because I saw in my graduating class only about 10 (out of 120) of us who could be considered minorities. There was a lack of diversity in just my class, so I said, let me go back and teach more minority students how to accomplish their dreams in academia and towards biopharma, health sciences, and clinical research so we can diversify STEM. I thought, what way can I do this? Through hip-hop music.
Light-bulb moment: The light bulb went off for me when my anatomy and physiology teacher played a video of four guys rapping about neuroscience. I started laughing. They were rapping about different nerves in the brain. But the teacher said, this is a mnemonic to help you guys remember all the different pathways within the brainstem. I thought, now I remember why I got into STEM in the first place.
Definition: This concept of brainstemology is really a definition: It’s the study of brilliant rhymes, academic in nature, incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content. You’re starting to see hip-hop being implemented in academia at the collegiate level. I want to bring it for the middle and high schoolers to help them on their journey, and to use hip-hop as a vehicle to overcome any challenges or barriers that happen in their life, because we all will face some.
Perfect place: Let me start BrainSTEMology in Fuquay-Varina. We’re in the middle of all these universities and Wake Tech. Biopharma companies are coming into the area. Students don’t have to leave the Fuquay area for opportunities in STEM. So let me help prepare (them) for these different career paths.
Programs: We have workshops, laboratories, and networking sessions. In our workshops, I want to take the most challenging concepts that I had to learn through my schooling and teach them to students while they’re in middle school and high school. Now these concepts won’t be a barrier for them to consider pursuing college.
While I was in school, the lab was, for me, a joy. It’s a place you get to come, dress how I want to dress, get there early, stay as late as I want. As long as I got my work done, nobody bothered me. And I listen to my music.
In BrainSTEMology, we play off the idea that in hip-hop, I’m going to the lab to create music, but here, I’m literally going into the lab to actually design molecules.
The last part is professional networking. Students learn from different panel groups. We can help educate kids on different career paths that they can take, letting them know that science and STEM is everywhere, but now let’s make it fun through the arts.
About M.A.N.iFest: M.A.N.ifest is a music, art, and networking festival. It really is the brainchild of my wife, Qisoundra Flowers. We share with our community the heritage of Juneteenth, how it’s not just for African Americans, but it’s for everyone. It’s Americans’ history. And for me, having a STEM background, I want to utilize M.A.N.ifest as a vehicle to share that African Americans have made contributions to STEM before and after emancipation. Unfortunately, we don’t hear about these stories in our textbooks.
