As part of the Columbus College of Art & Design’s Visiting Artists & Scholars Series, writer and activist Adrienne Maree Brown will take the virtual stage at noon Friday, April 2.
Brown is the author of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, she is also co-host of the podcasts How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables.
Currently rooted in Detroit, her most recent work We Will Not Cancel Us was published in November 2020 and examines cancel culture, also known as call-out culture, which originated as a way for marginalized and disempowered people to address harm and take down powerful abusers. This was often done with the help of social media, and is now seen by some as having gone too far.
Exploring the topic from a Black, queer and feminist viewpoint, she asks “what is too far” when talking about imbalances of power and patterns of harm. She also explains what happens when people in social movements direct their righteous anger inward and toward one another. She encourages viewers to question how well social justice practices serve society, and if it prefigures the sort of world we want to live in. If not, she wants to know how we should then seek accountability and redress for harm in ways that reflect our current values.
During her talk with the CCAD community, Brown will ask questions like “How we can change together? How can we honor the potential for change in each other? How can we shake off the systems that harm us, even when they are within? And how do we hold each other through collective change?”
Simultaneously, Tiaré Lani Jung will be doing a live graphic recording of Brown's talk that attendees will be able to view. Attendance is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. A recording of the event will be shared on Virtual CCAD following the event. To learn more about Brown, visit adriennemareebrown.net.
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