adrienne maree brown

Adrienne Maree Brown, often styled adrienne maree brown (born September 6, 1978), is an American writer, activist and facilitator. From 2006 to 2010, she was executive director of the Ruckus Society. She also co-founded and directed the United States League of Young Voters. Brown describes her thought as postnationalism, and others have described it as Black feminism or womanism. She also supports, among others, the Black Lives Matter and prison abolition movements.

Much of her work as a writer is based on the writings of science-fiction author Octavia E. Butler. Her first book, Emergent Strategy, was published in 2017. Other books include Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, published in 2019, and We Will Not Cancel Us, published in 2020. Brown also runs podcasts and has released a music project. Additionally, she works as a doula.

Life and activism

Early life

Brown was born on September 6, 1978, in El Paso, Texas, to a mixed-race couple who met at Clemson University in South Carolina. She is the eldest of three children. Her father was in the military and she spent much of her childhood abroad in Germany (see United States military deployments), as well as in Georgia, New York, and California. As mixed-race children, Brown and her sisters experienced racism in school.

Brown attended Columbia University where she studied African American Studies, political science, and voice. She was at the university when Amadou Diallo was killed by police officers in 1999. She cites this time as being pivotal to the development of her political consciousness, especially regarding issues of policing and race. She is pansexual and has recounted experiences with homophobia and sexual assault.

After graduating from Columbia, brown began working with the Harm Reduction Coalition in Brooklyn, and served as a social justice facilitator at the Social Forum. She moved to Detroit in 2009 after being invited to consult with Detroit Summer in 2006, and after dating Detroit-based rapper Invincible.

Activism in Detroit and onwards

From 2006, brown worked with social justice organizations in Detroit. In 2006, brown served as a consultant with Detroit Summer, based out of the Boggs Center. From this, brown developed a strong relationship with Grace Lee Boggs, whom she counts as a mentor. Brown was a major figure within the Allied Media Conference as a host and facilitator. Between 2006 and 2010, brown also worked as the executive director of the Ruckus Society. She co-founded and directed the League of Young/Pissed Off Voters. Of her work in Detroit, brown wrote, "Our actions have to be towards the world we want. We need to be guerilla gardening and turning people's heat and water on. We need to be the guerillas putting up solar panels in the hood. That's what Detroit has taught me."

Brown has supported Democratic candidates in presidential elections, encouraging her readers to vote for Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Brown describes her thought as postnationalism. Others have described it as Black feminism or womanism. She has also expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In her book We Will Not Cancel Us, she expresses support for the prison abolition movement.

Works

Journalism

Brown is currently a contributor to YES!, a magazine focused on solutions journalism. Brown previously contributed to Detroit-based newspaper The Michigan Citizen and was a sex columnist for Bitch magazine.

Books and contributions to books

Brown has published extensively on sex, healing, self-care, trauma, and science fiction. Much of her work as a writer is based on the writings of science-fiction author Octavia E. Butler. Her own writing style has been said to belong to the Afrofuturism genre.

In 2010, she published the Octavia Butler Strategic Reader with Alexis Pauline Gumbs. In 2013, she received a Detroit Knight Arts Challenge Award to run a series of Octavia Butler-based science fiction writing workshops. In 2015, she collaborated with Walidah Imarisha and Sheree Renee Thomas to edit and release Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, a collection of 20 short stories and essays about social justice inspired by Butler.

Her first book, Emergent Strategy, which examines sustainable social change, was released in 2017 by AK Press to critical acclaim. Brown defines emergence as "the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions" and describes emergent strategy as a "life-code" which is effective both in organizing and personal life.

Emergent Strategy has given way to a series of books published by AK Press on sustainable transformative justice, including the November 2020 release We Will Not Cancel Us And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice and Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation, released May 2021. The 2020 book We Will Not Cancel Us considers questions of harm, accountability, and transformative justice, speaking primarily to an audience of activists and others organizing around prison abolition.

Brown has contributed to anthologies focused on justice, transformation, and feminism, including How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office: The Anti-Politics, Un-Boring Guide to Power (2004), Dreaming in Public: Building the Occupy Movement (2012), Dear Sister (2014), and Feminisms in Motion (2018), How We Fight White Supremacy (2019), and Beyond Survival (2020).