About
Dawn Star Fleming was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1954. Dawn’s mother took advantage of the wonderful, free museums in Cleveland, and Dawn developed a love of the arts. Her love of writing and art opened opportunities and has colored her world throughout her life.
Before graduating from Lakewood High School, Dawn was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Chicago at age sixteen. She left the life of academia to live on a farm in southern Michigan, where she enjoyed horses, sheep, chickens, geese, dogs, and cats. Eventually, she completed her bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and her law degree at Cooley Law School.
Dawn’s lifelong career with the State of Michigan allowed her to grow personally and professionally. Her empathy as a caseworker was enhanced by her own childhood experiences with divorce, poverty, family members with mental illness, and prejudice. Her career developed her writing skills, first as a policy analyst and later as an attorney.
Dawn enjoys painting watercolors, especially of wildlife and birds. Her work was exhibited at the Gerald Ford Museum during the Grand Rapids Art Prize festival in 2024. In addition to painting and writing, Dawn enjoys spending time with friends, gardening, cooking, reading, and watching movies.
Dawn lives in Lansing, Michigan,with her husband Enrique and her cat Katrina. She has cultivated many wonderful friendships, and she visits her daughter Brooke and grandson Adi in Ann Arbor regularly.
Featured Work
Amazing Adventures of My Childhood in Cleveland (And How I Survived)
You might not think it is amazing or adventurous to grow up in Cleveland, Ohio. But as a little white girl, who lived on the eastside in the 1960’s, it was amazingly adventurous.
It was a time of racial tension and prejudice, which the young girl experienced firsthand; and it was the beginning of women’s liberation, which she experienced through the eyes of her divorced mother, when divorce was socially taboo.
The child witnesses—but does not fully understand—her father’s mental illness, before the divorce, or her mother’s difficulties as a single parent, after the divorce. Her daily life is defined by the family’s sudden struggle with poverty, challenges with reliable childcare, and the mischief of unsupervised children. Tragedy, the loss of friends and family, and a changing neighborhood during the “white flight” of the 1960’s cause instability and insecurity.
Like many American children, her story evolves from the strong roots of an immigrant family, and Cleveland is the perfect melting pot. In addition to her own stories, the child recounts stories that her mother told about her own childhood as a young immigrant with parents who did not speak fluent English.
The story is told with the wide-eyed innocence of youth. There was a lot to learn.
