Bourbon 'n BrownTown
120 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 36 ratingsPowered by SoapBox Productions and Organizing, Bourbon ‘n BrownTown is a conversation-based podcast that fosters radically imaginative dialogues on media, culture, politics, and our various social movements through a liberatory lens. With a Chicago focus, filmmakers and movement workers Caullen Hudson and David A. Moran unpack complex social issues and topics while building relationships with artists, activists, community organizers, educators, social entrepreneurs, and others working towards a better world. Together, BrownTown holds space to listen, learn, and liberate, all while sippin’ on sumpin’ good. Salud!
Visit SoapBoxPO.com/Podcast; follow @BourbonnBrownTown on Facebook/Instagram, @BourbonnBrwnTwn on Twitter; and @SoapBoxPO on all social media.
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Episodes
Ep. 105 - Bring Chicago Home ft. Dixon Romeo
March 11, 2024 22:47 - 1 hour - 75.4 MBBrownTown chops it up with Dixon Romeo, Executive Director of NotMeWe and organizer with the Bring Chicago Home campaign. On March 19th, 2024, Chicago voters have the opportunity in the state primary elections to restructure the already existing, one-time Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) "on properties when they are sold to create a substantial and legally dedicated revenue stream to provide permanent affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness" (BringChicagoHome.org). The gang br...
Ep. 104 - Voter Guides, Electoralism, & the 2024 Cook County Primaries ft. Stephanie Skora & Raeghn Draper
February 21, 2024 18:54 - 1 hour - 105 MBBrownTown sits down with co-authors of the "Girl, I Guess" Progressive Voter Guide, three-peat guest Stephanie Skora and newcomer Raeghn Draper to talk all things 2024 Cook County Democratic Primary Elections. From ethics and attitudes in long-form opinion journalism to new endorsement standards surrounding Palestinian liberation, the gang situates the relationship between electoralism and the Left in this moment and extrapolates its potential for the future. Originally recorded February 8, ...
Ep. 103 - New Years 2024: A Retrospective ft. Kiera Battles
January 20, 2024 02:19 - 1 hour - 69.2 MBBrownTown on BrownTown. BnB audio engineer Kiera Battles is back with her behind-the-scenes insights on the podcast as the team discusses the episodes of 2023. Last year brought the continuation of the Whiskey and Watching series, a host of episodes surrounding the 2023 Chicago Municipal Elections, a resurgent discussion of #NoCopAcademy in the midst of the #StopCopCity struggle in Atlanta, and plenty of reflective conversations on the podcast, SoapBox at large, and the direction of the move...
Ep. 102 - Palestinian Liberation in This Moment ft. Muhammad Sankari
December 31, 2023 06:00 - 1 hour - 81.8 MBBrownTown invites Muhammad Sankari from the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) to discuss this current moment in the struggle to Free Palestine. The gang frames Israel's genocide in Gaza and assault on the other territories in historical context with regards to the long history of resistance struggles across the globe. #FreePalestine. Originally recorded December 19, 2023. GUEST Muhammad Sankari is an organizer with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), a national, multi-ge...
Ep. 101 - Hood Empathy & The Chicago Creative Wave ft. Isiah "ThoughtPoet" Veney
December 20, 2023 06:00 - 1 hour - 80.5 MBBrownTown shares space with frequent collaborator, Isiah “ThoughtPoet” Veney, photographer, A&R, organizer, and overall creative from Chicago's South Side. ThoughtPoet and BrownTown unpack the Afro-futuristic and "hood empathetic" themes of his photography work, his and SoapBox's collaboration in the "One Million Experiments" film, lessons from the 2020 uprisings, and more. What does community-building really look like in Chicago's growing multidisciplinary creative scene when coupled with a...
Ep. 100 - It's a BnB Celebration! ft. Samantha Grund-Wickramasekera & Camille Williams
December 08, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 96 MBBrownTown on BrownTown. Join Caullen and David as they celebrate BnB's 100th episode with guest hosts and homies Samantha Grund-Wickramasekera and Camille Williams. Sam is a long-time listener and SoapBox board member while Camille was one of the first podcast guests. As collaborators and friends of BrownTown, they have seen the podcast and SoapBox as a whole grow over the years and detail that as they lead a reflection on where the podcast has been, where it is, and where it's going. Here's...
Ep. 99 - Whiskey & Watching: "I Like It Like That" (1994) ft. Ricardo Gamboa & Mia Carbajal
November 08, 2023 23:00 - 1 hour - 93.6 MBBrownTown again chops it up with the Hoodoisie fam, co-host Ricardo Gamboa and Executive Director Mia Carbajal for "Whiskey & Watching." The team deconstructs the darling 90's comedy-drama "I Like It Like That" (1994), the first large studio film directed by a Black woman. The film centers around an Afro-Latina woman in the Bronx whose life is turned upside down when her husband is arrested after trying to steal a radio during a blackout. While he's incarcerated, she is forced to find a way ...
BONUS - #NoCopTOBER ft. Freedom X
October 07, 2023 00:31 - 27 minutes - 25 MBBrownTown shares space with Chicago Southsider and former #NoCopAcademy organizer Freedom X as they reminisce about the height of the campaign and discuss what the new feature documentary means to them in this moment. Come see the film this #NoCopTOBER and be on the lookout for future screenings at Linktr.ee/NoCopAcademy and SoapBoxPO.com/NoCopAcademy! #NoCopDoc GUEST Freedom X is a Chicago South Side revolutionary who was a youth organizer during the #NoCopAcademy campaign from 2017-20...
Ep. 98 - Coalition-building & Water Solidarity ft. Avalon Betts-Gatson & Tommy Hagan
October 06, 2023 22:36 - 1 hour - 103 MBBrownTown talks water access, water solidarity, and abolition as presence with Avalon Betts-Gatson and Tommy Hagan, organizers with the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois (CDI). From indigenous land back struggles to fighting for clean drinking water for incarcerated peoples, water is the most basic human right. The gang gets meta discussing organizing strategies within coalitions of various ideologies, access points to abolition, and the role of prisons and carceral logics in current campaig...
BONUS - Help This Garden Grow, Episode 1
September 14, 2023 17:20 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBBrownTown is delighted to -- for the first time -- share a new series from our movement media fam over at AirGo. Help This Garden Grow is a new six-part podcast documentary series telling the story of Hazel Johnson, a visionary of the Environmental Justice movement and a resident of the Altgeld Gardens community on the far South Side of Chicago. Hazel is the founder of People for Community Recovery, a 40 year-old organization that fights to address the toxic industrial pollution that has bee...
Ep. 97 - Progressive Latinas in the New Chicago City Council ft. Alderpersons Rossana Rodriguez & Jessie Fuentes
August 18, 2023 22:54 - 1 hour - 67 MBBrownTown chops it up with Alderhomies Rossana Rodriguez (33rd) and Jessie Fuentes (26th) in the inaugural recording within the Harambe Studios at the SoapBox office. Chicago City Council is now the most Black and Latine, the most queer, the most politically left, and with the most female leaders in the city's history (and in some cases, currently in the country). With that, the gang discusses Mayor Johnson first 100 days, progressive city policy, the relationship between representation and ...
Ep. 96 - Advertising in the Activist Resurgence (& So-called "Wokeism") 3.0 ft. Justin Stillmaker
August 11, 2023 20:50 - 1 hour - 86.2 MBBrownTown sits down with the original "Ad Man" Justin Stillmaker to reflect on the role of advertising as propaganda, its attempts to co-opt social movement language and optics throughout the past half decade, and the odd trajectory of the term "woke" (and the right-wing obsession with hating it). Now in 2023, with unapologetic anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Black, and anti-labor laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, where do we situate so-called “wokeism” in normalizing hate, harm, and regression? Wit...
Ep. 95 - Home
July 31, 2023 23:54 - 1 hour - 71.9 MBBrownTown on BrownTown. As SoapBox (the film and movement media hub that powers Bourbon 'n BrownTown) moves into its first-ever office, Caullen and David discuss their journeys finding and curating spaces to call home, personally and professionally. BrownTown affirms housing as a human right while examining Chicago and America's dialectical relationships -- the housing crisis and Bring Chicago Home legislation, decades of US imperialism and caring for asylum seekers, Wall Street bailouts and...
Ep. 94 - Police Abolition 2.0 ft. District Councilors David Orlikoff & Ashley Vargas
July 15, 2023 01:06 - 1 hour - 80.4 MBBrownTown breaks down the relationship between police abolition and state-sanctioned police accountability measures with newly elected Police District Councilors David Orlikoff and Ashley Vargas. The guests square their PIC abolitionist organizing roots with the new accountability structure, Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), for the Chicago Police Department. Three years after the first installment in the midst of the 2020 uprisings, BrownTown and the organiz...
Ep. 93 - Coalition-building, Growing Solidarity, & #StopCopCity ft. Chelle Sanders & Jasmine Burnett
May 27, 2023 03:21 - 1 hour - 76.6 MBBrownTown virtually visits Atlanta and chops it up with Chelle Sanders and Jasmine Burnett, organizers with #StopCopCity. Chicago’s #NoCopAcademy and Atlanta’s #StopCopCity movements are part of the same struggle: to end violent policing, protect the environment and defend Black and brown lives. As similar as they are, only years apart, they also both vary in terms of structure and place-based history. Still, the Black-led, multi-racial constellations of grassroots organizations, concerned c...
Ep. 92 - Whiskey & Watching: "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022) ft. Ricardo Gamboa, Charles Preston, & Mia Carbajal
May 20, 2023 01:21 - 1 hour - 85.3 MBBrownTown shares space with the Hoodoisie hosts Ricardo Gamboa and Charles Preston and Executive Director Mia Carbajal in the return of "Whiskey & Watching." BrownTown and the Hoodoise deconstruct the Oscar Best Picture "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022): When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, a middle-aged Chinese immigrant must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of her family and the world hangs in the ba...
Ep. 92 - Whiskey & Watching: "Everything Everywhere All At Once" ft. Ricardo Gamboa, Charles Preston, & Mia Carbajal
May 20, 2023 01:21 - 1 hour - 85.3 MBBrownTown shares space with the Hoodoise hosts Ricardo Gamboa and Charles Preston and Executive Director Mia Carbajal in the return of "Whiskey & Watching." BrownTown and the Hoodoise deconstruct the Oscar Best Picture "Everything Everywhere All At Once" (2022): When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, a middle-aged Chinese immigrant must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of her family and the world hangs in the bal...
Ep. 91 - Narratives in Media & Documenting Movements 2.0 ft. Morgan Elise Johnson
May 10, 2023 23:43 - 1 hour - 68.7 MBBrownTown reflects on the 2023 Chicago municipal elections and the importance of disrupting dominant media narratives with Morgan Elise Johnson, filmmaker, publisher, and co-creator of the TRiiBE, an award-winning digital publication and production company dedicated to reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago. Local, community, and especially radical and movement-based actors in radio, film, podcasts, and documentation have greatly disrupted the broader media landscape in the past decade fo...
Ep. 90 - Electoral & Radical Politics 4.0 ft. Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez & Alderperson-elect Jessie Fuentes
April 15, 2023 04:19 - 1 hour - 76.5 MBBrownTown continues to dialogue about the relationship between electoral and radical politics with Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Alderperson-elect Jessie Fuentes. With the historic 2023 Chicago municipal elections in the rearview, the team situates what this never-before-seen cohort of socialist and progressive alderpeople and new mayor means in terms of the city's social movements and political history. If electoralism is a mere tool in the toolbox in the work towards collective liberatio...
Ep. 89 - The Politics of Dress, Pt. 2 ft. Hannah Linsky
March 18, 2023 01:19 - 1 hour - 87.7 MBBrownTown again invites Hannah Linsky (she/her), vintage stylist, seller, educator, and liver and breather of all things fashion to unpack the politics of dress. In part 2, the friends go macro and discuss fashion within current and historical social movements and its impact on policy and popular culture. From Scottish Resistance to the Black Panthers to Iran's Hijab Protest Movement and everything in between, we understand that dress communicates strong cultural messages. Though often creat...
Ep. 88 - New Years 2023: A Retrospective ft. Kiera Battles
January 23, 2023 05:28 - 1 hour - 77.9 MBBrownTown on BrownTown. Now-BnB audio engineer Kiera Battles makes her debut bringing in behind-the-scenes insights to the podcast as the gang unpacks the episodes, new series, and various recording environments that made up 2022. For better or worse, here's to 2023! With 11 total full episodes, this shortened year brought 8 guest episodes (3 repeat guests), only 1 with no guests, and 2 new series (1 ongoing; 1 completed). In addition to breaking down 2022 episodes, BrownTown chops it out a...
Ep. 87 - Democratizing Philosophy through Identity, Environment, & Ethical Food Pathways ft. Shanti Chu
December 30, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour - 68.2 MBBrownTown listens, learns, and discusses how to make philosophy more accessible, environmental justice through animal rights, and ethical food pathways with Shanti Chu, philosopher, writer, speaker, and creator of ChiVeg, a dynamic food blog that focuses on ethical eating with vegetarian recipes. The team explores the topics' connections to each other through personal experiences and critical pedagogy while unpacking their relation to capitalism and white supremacy. Full Transcription Here!...
Ep. 86 - W.O.R.K. in the Age of Spin
December 17, 2022 04:04 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBBrownTown chops it up about WORK. Building on previous episodes about labor, unions, and trying to do liberatory work within capitalism, BrownTown contextualizes recent inflation hikes, the state of "hustle culture," and the seven-decade growth of corporate profits on the backs of the working class. While the majority of adults WORK, the propaganda that you must "earn" the right to live and be productive constantly in order to have any value has normalized harmful policies, language, and att...
Ep. 85 - The Politics of Dress, Pt. 1 ft. Hannah Linsky
November 30, 2022 06:00 - 1 hour - 92.6 MBBrownTown invites Hannah Linsky (she/her), vintage stylist, seller, educator, and liver and breather of all things fashion to unpack the politics of dress. The friends use their experiences with clothing and fashion growing up to dissect the often overlooked yet important cultural artifact. As an everyday window into individual and collective beliefs and values, the limitless expression of how we adorn our bodies is a site for discussion around gender and patriarchy; sustainability, labor, a...
Ep. 84 - Whiskey & Watching: "Passing" (2021) ft. Sophie Elizabeth James & Pearl Quick
September 30, 2022 16:27 - 2 hours - 118 MBBrownTown again shares space with Sophie Elizabeth James, sociologist and Unpaid Emotional Labor podcast host, and Pearl Quick, farmer, pastor, and poet extraordinaire, in the sophomore episode of our recurring "Whiskey & Watching" series. BrownTown and guests deconstruct, recontextualize, and, dare we say, decolonize popular films, TV shows, books, and more! This time the gang unpacks Passing (2021), the Rebecca Hall directorial debut (for better or worse) and film-adaptation of the Nella L...
Ep. 84 - Whiskey & Watching: "Passing" ft. Sophie Elizabeth James & Pearl Quick
September 30, 2022 16:27 - 2 hours - 118 MBBrownTown again shares space with Sophie Elizabeth James, sociologist and Unpaid Emotional Labor podcast host, and Pearl Quick, farmer, pastor, and poet extraordinaire, in the sophomore episode of our recurring "Whiskey & Watching" series. BrownTown and guests deconstruct, recontextualize, and, dare we say, decolonize popular films, TV shows, books, and more! This time the gang unpacks Passing (2021), the Rebecca Hall directorial debut (for better or worse) and film-adaptation of the Nella L...
Ep. 83 - “We Are More” Pt. 3: Re-entry, Combating the "Law & Order" Narrative, & the SAFE-T Act ft. Melvin Farley
September 23, 2022 05:00 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBBrownTown links up with Melvin Farley, formerly incarcerated friend of Illinois Prison Project. In Part Three of the "We Are More" series, BrownTown and Melvin discuss re-entering society after incarceration, combating the "law and order" narrative and resurgent fear-mongering politics tactics, as well as the much talked about Illinois SAFE-T Act that goes into full effect January 1, 2023. Watch the micro-docs, listen to the series, and take action at SoapBoxPO.com/We-Are-More and IllinoisPr...
Ep. 82 - “We Are More” Pt. 2 - Transforming Systems & Community Organizing after Incarceration ft. Dyanna Winchester
August 20, 2022 01:21 - 1 hour - 67.7 MBBrownTown sits down with Dyanna Winchester, Decarceration Organizer with Live Free Illinois. In Part Two of the "We Are More" series, BrownTown and Dyanna discuss organizing against and within institutions to disrupt dangerous policy, addressing intracommunal violence with interpersonal relationships, supporting re-entry after being incarcerated, and more. Watch the micro-docs, listen to the series, and take action at SoapBoxPO.com/We-Are-More and IllinoisPrisonProject.org. Dyanna's shares ...
Ep. 82 - “We Are More” Pt. 2: Transforming Systems & Community Organizing after Incarceration ft. Dyanna Winchester
August 20, 2022 01:21 - 1 hour - 67.7 MBBrownTown sits down with Dyanna Winchester, Decarceration Organizer with Live Free Illinois. In Part Two of the "We Are More" series, BrownTown and Dyanna discuss organizing against and within institutions to disrupt dangerous policy, addressing intracommunal violence with interpersonal relationships, supporting re-entry after being incarcerated, and more. Watch the micro-docs, listen to the series, and take action at SoapBoxPO.com/We-Are-More and IllinoisPrisonProject.org. Dyanna's shares ...
Ep. 81 - “We Are More” Pt. 1: Redefining False Narratives & Disrupting Trajectories of Women in Prison ft. Sandra Brown
July 15, 2022 23:41 - 1 hour - 61.8 MBBrownTown shares virtual space with Sandra Brown, formerly incarcerated survivor and current Senior Advisor and Visiting Scholar with the Women’s Justice Institute (WJI). In Part One of the "We Are More" series, BrownTown and Sandra discuss the four leading criminal legal system trends that have spurred the rise in women's mass incarceration and meet them with five fundamental rights and needs as pathways to justice (WJI). At the intersection of carcerality and patriarchy, the team collectiv...
TRAILER - The "We Are More" Series
July 02, 2022 02:33 - 8 minutes - 8.05 MBBrownTown brings you the "We Are More" campaign series! The podcast extension of SoapBox's micro-doc video series with the Illinois Prison Project centers the experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, and pushes back against fear-mongering “tough on crime” rhetoric and policies resurging in the 2022 election season. With the support of directly-impacted guests, BrownTown unpacks the revanchist history of these dangerous policies, recent media sensationalism, and the impor...
Ep. 80 - Remapping, Electoralism, & Challenging the Border Myth ft. Stephanie Skora
June 18, 2022 04:47 - 1 hour - 92.2 MBBrownTown chops it up about electoral politics, the remap process post-2020 Census, borders and anti-Zionism, and much more with repeat guest (Ep. 60) Stephanie Skora, movement worker and creator of the popular "Girl, I Guess" Progressive Voter Guide. The gang again takes on the nuances of engaging in electoralism while holding radical politics and the importance international solidarity between colonized peoples. Originally recorded May 16, 2022, before the new Chicago ward map was approved...
Ep. 79 - Whiskey & Watching: "The Batman" ft. Sophie Elizabeth James & Pearl Quick
May 27, 2022 16:50 - 1 hour - 73.7 MBBrownTown is again joined by Sophie Elizabeth James, sociologist and Unpaid Emotional Labor podcast host, and Pearl Quick, farmer, pastor, and poet extraordinaire, in the inaugural episode of our recurring "Whiskey & Watching" series. BrownTown and guests deconstruct, recontextualize, and, dare we say, decolonize popular films, TV shows, books, and more! In our first take, the homies take on The Batman, the 2022 Matt Reeves live-action feature version of the cape crusader's anthology. From a...
Ep. 79 - Whiskey & Watching: "The Batman" (2022) ft. Sophie Elizabeth James & Pearl Quick
May 27, 2022 16:50 - 1 hour - 73.7 MBBrownTown is again joined by Sophie Elizabeth James, sociologist and Unpaid Emotional Labor podcast host, and Pearl Quick, farmer, pastor, and poet extraordinaire, in the inaugural episode of our recurring "Whiskey & Watching" series. BrownTown and guests deconstruct, recontextualize, and, dare we say, decolonize popular films, TV shows, books, and more! In our first take, the homies take on The Batman, the 2022 Matt Reeves live-action feature version of the cape crusader's anthology. From a...
Ep. 78 - Black Farming & Finding Your Food Story ft. Pearl Quick
May 07, 2022 02:18 - 1 hour - 92.4 MBBrownTown breaks bread with long-time homie Pearl Quick, soil science educator, farmer, and pastor as they discuss the histories of Black, brown, and indigenous farming practices while navigating the relationship and resistance to oppressive institutions, and what it means to decolonize our food systems. Full transcription here! GUEST Hailing from the South Bronx, Pearl Quick is an educator in soil science, disease ecology, genetics, and faith formation from Sarah Lawrence & Princeton Univ...
Ep. 77 - Independent Media Creation in the Age of Spin (& Capital) ft. Sophie Elizabeth James
April 29, 2022 22:15 - 1 hour - 91.9 MBBrownTown gets meta with return guest Sophie Elizabeth James, sociologist, program manager in the anti-human trafficking sector, and creator of the Unpaid Emotional Labor podcast. The team dissects our current independent media landscape and the digital and socio-political histories that make it up. While they center their own experience in making films and podcasts and using social media, they also lean into noteworthy media events in relation to dominant narratives on "propaganda", media l...
Ep. 76 - Surveillance Capitalism & Abolitionist Tech, Pt. 2 ft. Alyxandra Goodwin
October 23, 2021 01:40 - 1 hour - 105 MBBrownTown spills even more the tea on in part two of the surveillance capitalism and abolitionist tech conversation with Alyx Goodwin, currently a Deputy Campaign Director on Policing and Incarceration at the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), organizes with BYP100 Chicago, and is a co-founder and writer with LEFT OUT Magazine. Alyx and BrownTown pick up where they left off centering a couple reminders and updates before the dig in. The gang discusses the observations and broader...
Ep. 76 - Surveillance Capitalism & Abolitionist Tech, Pt. 1 ft. Alyxandra Goodwin
September 30, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 89.2 MBBrownTown spills the tea on surveillance capitalism and talks abolitionist tech with Alyxandra Goodwin, who is recently organizing the #StopShotSpotter campaign in Chicago. In part one of this two-part episode, the gang unpack surveillance in various forms from policing to social media while unpacking the many intricacies and insidious ways it controls our lives from the most intimate to the most systemic. Alyx and the gang quickly digs into the relationship between social media tech survei...
Ep. 75 - Youth Radio: Inside & Out ft. Simone St. Pierre Nelson & Stories by Youth Incarcerated in Seattle
August 30, 2021 22:03 - 1 hour - 86 MBBrownTown and Simone discuss the power of youth radio in this episode that includes three (3) full audio stories produced by and featuring teens incarcerated in Seattle. In April 2021, Simone, David, and Caullen worked with the teens to create the featured stories in a two-day workshop with KUOW Radioactive Youth Media. They discuss the importance of authentic narratives in media creation, intergenerational youth programming, and uplifting justice-involved youth while navigating inequitable ...
BONUS - The Collective Freedom Project: Debrief
August 21, 2021 01:54 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBIn the first recording since the Collective Freedom Project (CFP) series, Caullen and David debrief on the series' conversations, producing the project behind-the-scenes, as well as unpack previously unheard material. Caullen outlines the timeline of SoapBox's journey in the Collective Freedom Project and what it was like pitching the podcast series. David unpacks some of the difficulties and limitations with producing even long-form audio stories, in that there is always more to explore wit...
Ep. 74 - The Collective Freedom Project, Pt. 4: California & #Budget2SaveLives ft. Sandy Valenciano
July 09, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 80 MBBrownTown listens, learns, and breaks down California's state-wide efforts for a just budget, to resist immigrant detention, and advance alternatives to incarceration, especially on the onset of COVID-19 with Sandy Valenciano. Watch the micro-docs, listen to the series, and take action at CollectiveFreedomProject.org/Multimedia. Similar to Part Three of the CFP series with Austin, Texas, Sandy debunks the myth of California as progressive bubble it's often painted from the outside. She brea...
Ep. 73 - The Collective Freedom Project, Pt. 3: Texas & #ShutDownHutto ft. Rebecca Sanchez & David Johnson
July 08, 2021 18:12 - 2 hours - 112 MBBrownTown links up with Rebecca Sanchez & David Johnson of Grassroots Leadership in Austin, Texas. In Part Three of the Collective Freedom Project series, they discuss the the socio-political climate in Austin, the #DefundAPD campaign(s); #ShutDownHutto and other campaigns to close or halt construction of new jails; and the intersections of technology, surveillance, and gentrification. BrownTown and guests cover several interrelated topics throughout the course of their time together. After...
Ep. 72 - The Collective Freedom Project, Pt. 2: Atlanta & #CloseTheJailATL ft. Denise Ruben
July 07, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBBrownTown chops it up with Denise Ruben as they discuss the #CloseTheJailATL campaign and coalition. The Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC) was built in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics as the "extra jail" in Atlanta and previously was divided into two sides — the "city side" and the ICE side. The campaign won legislation in May 2019 to close and repurpose the jail through a community-led taskforce but is still fighting to repurpose the facility into a Center for Wellness & Freedom...
Ep. 71 - The Collective Freedom Project, Pt. 1: Chicago & #EraseTheDatabase ft. Xanat Sobrevilla
July 06, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 64.4 MBBrownTown shares virtual space with Xanat Sobrevilla as they discuss the #EraseTheDatabase campaign to abolish and repair the harm done by the City's gang database as well as breakdown the broader connection between local police and ICE. BrownTown and Xanat set the stage for Chicago as a site with a longstanding tradition of coalition-building nodding to the rainbow coalition of the Fred Hampton era all the way to #NoCopAcademy (1, 2) and of course #EraseTheDatabase. Xanat explains that coa...
TRAILER - The Collective Freedom Project: A Four-Part Series
June 20, 2021 23:00 - 13 minutes - 12.2 MBCaullen and David of BrownTown and organizers across the U.S. discuss fighting for a world away from police and ICE violence and towards a world with life-affirming institutions, respect for our natural environments, collective freedom and liberation. The nuanced conversations in the series allow for a more complex, dynamic, and frank digestion of the varied political terrain in which we wage region-specific efforts as well as introspective dives into the broader lessons we can learn from ea...
Ep. 70 - Narratives in Media & Documenting Movements ft. Mateo Zapata
May 14, 2021 23:50 - 1 hour - 97.6 MBBrownTown reflects on the turbulent events of March and April 2021 in Chicago within the context of the community-based media, truth in journalism, and participating in and documenting social movements with Mateo Zapata. Mateo shares his introduction into organizing for immigrants' rights in resistance to the Sensenbrenner bill in 2006 (1, 2). He and BrownTown harp on the importance of organizing and grassroots action regardless of policy promises and often in direct opposition to legislati...
Ep. 69 - Restorative Justice ft. Mashaun Ali Hendricks
April 29, 2021 01:50 - 1 hour - 88 MBBrownTown shares a virtual circle with Mashaun Ali Hendricks. Together, they listen, learn, share, and unpack restorative justice from its ancestral beginnings to its modern direct opposition the prison-industrial complex and everything in between. Restorative Justice (RJ) has gained in popularity over the decades. We know it to be not only a philosophy and strategy, but a way of life. In an overly punitive country and world, RJ allows a roadmap to healing, communication, relationship-build...
Ep. 68 - Identity, Power, and the Invention of Race ft. CA Davis
April 03, 2021 01:18 - 1 hour - 98.7 MBGUEST CA is the creator and host of a LATTO Thought — an immersive audio documentary series that dismantles post-racial myths about mixed race identities. By day, he is a digital storyteller at Northwestern University where he turns academic research into films, podcasts, and media elements integral to larger digital humanities projects. Outside of NU, he is a filmmaker, editor, and, more recently, audio documentarian focused on racial consciousness and social justice. OVERVIEW BrownTown ...
Ep. 68 - Identity, Power, & the Invention of Race ft. CA Davis
April 03, 2021 01:18 - 1 hour - 98.7 MBBrownTown listens, learns, and breaks down the myths and histories of racial identity with CA Davis, filmmaker, digital storyteller, and creator of a LATTO Thought -- an immersive audio documentary that dismantles post-racial myths about mixed race identities. CA begins this special conversation outlining how he came to create a LATTO Thought and centering many of the misconceptions we commonly associate to race -- both more known biological myths as well as social myths in the way we const...
Ep. 67 - #DefundCPD, Responsive Institutions, & Turning Moments into Movements ft. Bettina Johnson
March 20, 2021 00:44 - 1 hour - 86.1 MBBrownTown invites Bettina Johnson to talk all things #DefundCPD campaign, nuances and strategies for abolitionist organizing, non-hierarchal structures, building responsive institutions, and training the newly politicized. The gang compares and contrasts their work and thoughts on abolition and broader "defund police" campaigns pre- and post-George Floyd uprisings before digging into the momentum theory of organizing--turning the energy and politicization of highly visible moments into sust...