Bourbon 'n BrownTown

BrownTown listens, learns, and again converses about public health, this time in the education field, with Le Greta Hudson, registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, and professor in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri. The team discusses the nuances, the disconnects, and aspiring symbiotic relationship between academia and the real world in building healthy co...

BrownTown shares space with Benji Hart, author, artist, and educator to discuss language, movement-building, and artistry created by and for queer, trans, and gender non-binary folks. The gang analyzes the relationships between Pride celebrations and police, media and political representations of LGBTQ+ folks, and the nuanced, complicated ways in which we subvert and reimagine oppressive systems w...

BrownTown links up with Tree, an activist, artist, and program facilitator with GoodKids MadCity working to end violence in all its forms. The team discusses educating young folks and the intersections of violence in music, policy, and the streets as well as the role white supremacy, capitalism, and toxic masculinity has in it all.   BrownTown originally met Tree at the Chicago Urban League’s live...

BrownTown chops it up with Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger of AirGo Podcast about all things independent media-making, humanizing through subject-to-subject dialogue, and making equitable space in Chicago’s creative communities and social movements. Let’s get meta. Originally recorded April 22, 2019.   The two duos cover the impetus of both podcasts as well as some emerging strategies and exp...

BrownTown reflects on the recent turn in the advertising industry to co-opting social movement optics, messages, and dialogues. As this industry has always run monetized media and the digital age has made media literacy ever-more important, BrownTown unpacks recent attempts of companies using progressive narrative shifts for their bottom-line. Originally recorded April 2019.   Advertising is a pil...

BrownTown kicks back with Tia Haywood and Jesús Vargas of the Haywood Monte Law Offices to discuss the role of the legal system, public opinion, and grassroots activism in holding the criminal justice system accountable while working within its very framework. The gang examines recent Chicago cases and breaks down how narratives and precedents can shape the path for future equity, for better or fo...

The full BrownTown diaspora unites to take on Black and Brown representation in media in the follow-up to the podcast’s inaugural episode. “Beezy” of BrownTown joins us to incorporate a Pakistani perspective and experience into the discussion on Black Panther, Coco, and Hasan Minaj to name a few. Where shallow “diversity” efforts fall short, BrownTown unpacks the nuances of the more representative...

BrownTown invites trauma-informed yoga teacher Mel Phillips to the discussion around holistic health, access to wellness care, and the ways in which we challenge systems of oppression in seemingly apolitical industries. What does equity and liberation look like in the allied health continuum? Together, using SoapBox's Fitness Against Fascism series as model, we extrapolate the connections between...

BrownTown again welcomes Heavy Crownz , rapper and educator, to the conversation around the nuances, personal experiences, and real life implications of code switching. Near the end of episode 25 , the podcast’s first live recording at DePaul University , Heavy and Caullen began discussing the nuances of code switching. In this episode, BrownTown welcomes Heavy back to continue that conversation....

BrownTown listens, learns, and sheds light on the ongoing fight for women's rights with Zoe Goodman, social justice advocate, abortion clinic escort, and certified confidential victim advocate for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Through personal experiences in faith, changing public policy, and #MeToo , the friends discuss the nuance and robust process of intersectional movement...

BrownTown on BrownTown. The gang reflects on 2018 as well as the very inception the podcast to remember the good, the bad, and the ugly. With the help of audio engineer and dearest friend Genta Tamashiro, BrownTown raises a glass with all of you as they look back at some of the realest moments with some of the dopest people around. Throughout the conversation, the group discusses our amazing guest...

GUESTS Monica Trinidad is a visual artist and organizer, born and raised on the southeast side of Chicago. She is a co-founder of For the People Artists Collective , a radical squad of Black artists and artists of color in Chicago who create art for Chicago's most powerful justice movements. Monica creates artwork to cultivate the practice of hope and to spark imagination in both organizers immers...

This is the sixth Chicago Drill and Activism (AKA "Chi DNA") installment of Bourbon ’n BrownTown. Chi DNA is an ongoing documentary and multimedia project, which also features interviews, micro-documentaries, and editorial pieces on drill rap and the activist resurgence in Chicago. LIVE AT DEPAUL The DePaul University Honors Program hosted Bourbon ’n BrownTown in this live podcast event as part of...

GUEST Quinn Wilson is a Chicago-based award-winning filmmaker/comedian with a focus on comedy and social justice-related work. He is the founder of What Matters Productions , where he takes his gift of filmmaking and passion for global equity to focus on telling stories that MATTER. Wilson is formerly the Creative Director for the iO Comedy Network (Improv Olympics), of the famous iO Improv Theate...

GUEST In the second take on the world of hip-hop, BrownTown goes international by inviting the podcast’s first featured music artist Fiendish AKA Junior AKA Kaiphobthawiphong to chop it up all the way from Bangkok, Thailand. Originally a DJ in high school, Fiendsh transitioned to creating his own content while at Columbia College Chicago. With similar stylings to J. Dilla, Madlib, Kanye West, and...

GUEST Kristyn Caragher is a public librarian and a two-time graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Information Sciences. She is the creator of Infollectuals , a discussion series that focuses on pressing societal issues and their relationship to libraries and social justice. OVERVIEW BrownTown and Kristyn discuss the role public libraries, other institutions, and th...

In light of all-too-frequent mass shootings across the country, another political gun control debate, and the broad swath of youth activism surrounding these issues, BrownTown turns a previous organic conversation into an episode. As gun violence in America is sadly nothing new, the youth mobilization after the Parkland, Florida school shooting sparked a lasting conversation around gun violence, t...

Juneteenth (June 19th) is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of American enslavement dating back to 1865. However, though the Emancipation Proclamation may have been the law of the land when signed, it took two years for news to reach the entire country. This is just one example of public policy or government apologies failing to be fulfilled by the state. As we unpack Juneteenth a...

GUEST Larone Ellison is a scholar, researcher, and father with a background in women’s and gender studies. He is a recent graduate of DePaul University’s sociology masters program where he researched cyber-harassment of Black women. OVERALL Larone discusses his experiences co-parenting and raising his daughter while in graduate school and beyond with (childless) BrownTown. He leads the conversatio...

GUEST Miles Fountain works as an educator at Positive Mental Health (PMH) which emerged out of a pursuit to inspire people with disabilities to be more, do more, an achieve greater goals. Today, they design programs, projects, and activities that nurture positive mental health by training participants for employment as workers and entrepreneurs. PMH promotes mental, physical, emotional, and econom...

GUEST Jamie Nesbitt is a wife, mother, and freelance journalist hailing from Chicago's Southside. Her work can be found in Ebony, XO Jane, RedEye Chicago, DNA Info Chicago (RIP), Chicagoist, Salon, her own blog Hood Feminism , and other publications. OVERVIEW Jamie gives BrownTown insight on her relationship with her mother growing up, her own entrance to motherhood, and raising her eight-year-old...

GUEST As the Faith in Place President and Executive Director, Rev. Sauder’s passion is empowering faith communities across Illinois to take measurable steps to connect the dots between faith, environmental justice, poverty, mass incarceration, race, violence, class, and health. He grew up in Illinois in rural Tazewell County and received his B.S. from the University of Illinois in Natural Resource...

This is the fifth Chicago Drill and Activism (AKA "Chi DNA") installment of Bourbon ’n BrownTown. Chi DNA is an ongoing documentary and multimedia project, which also features interviews, micro-documentaries, and editorial pieces on drill rap and the activist resurgence in Chicago. GUEST Tweak’G is a rapper and activist who has been on the front lines of the two successful grassroots campaigns in...

This is the fourth Chicago Drill and Activism (AKA "Chi DNA") installment of Bourbon ’n BrownTown. Chi DNA is an ongoing documentary and multimedia project, which also features interviews, micro-documentaries, and editorial pieces on drill rap and the activist resurgence in Chicago. GUEST Camille Williams is a Chicago activist who believes in grassroots organizing to bridge the gap between culture...

This is the third Chicago Drill and Activism (AKA "Chi DNA") installment of Bourbon ’n BrownTown. Chi DNA is an ongoing documentary and multimedia project, which also features interviews, micro-documentaries, and editorial pieces on drill rap and the activist resurgence in Chicago. Full Transcriptions Here! GUEST Kofi Ademola is a leader in Black Lives Matter - Chicago who has dedicated his life t...