Michelle Browder
Michelle Browder (born 1971) is an American artist and activist[1]. Her work has been in exhibited in four galleries, including the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.[2] Browder is the founder and artistic director of The Creative Changemakers Museum at the More Up Campus which highlights the lives of enslaved women Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey[3][4][5][6]. Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey were enslaved women from plantations in and around Montgomery, Alabama, who were experimented on by Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1840s.[7]
Browder has taught art at the Valiant Cross Boys School in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Atlanta Juvenile Detention Center, and launched The Haven At The Cross Roads After School arts program in Montgomery.[8]
She is the owner and operator of More Than Tours, a tour company which provides educational tours about racial bias and history to students and tourists in Montgomery, Alabama.[9] She has appeared on USA Today[10], PBS NewsHour[11], Today[12], and has been featured in The Boston Globe,[13] Preservation Magazine,[14] National Geographic,[15] and The New York Times.[16]
Biography[edit]
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Denver, Colorado, Browder is the daughter of Chaplain Curtis Browder, the first Black prison chaplain appointed by George Wallace, and Buena Browder.[17] She is also the family of the civil rights heroine Aurelia Browder of Browder v. Gayle. At seven years old, her family moved to Verbena, Alabama, where she experienced racial bias and prejudice. It was during this period that her father encouraged her to express her anger through art and creativity[18]
Browder attended the Art Institute of Atlanta, where she studied Graphic Design and Visual Communications. Her time there led to her paintings being commissioned by Tyler Perry, Denzel Washington, and Bryan Stevenson.[18]. Her work has also been shown at Stone Henge Gallery and The Club From Nowhere Gallery[18]
Browder studied at The Art Institute of Atlanta, but dropped out in her final year due to racial bias in the process of the evaluation of her thesis.[18]
Career[edit]
Browder has spent thirty years as a social justice and racial equity advocate and activist for at risk and marginalized youth.[19]
From 2002 to 2007, she opened an after school program in an impoverished area and opened a restaurant called PJR's Fish and BBQ Restaurants, and earned national recognition.[18]
In 2012, she created the More Up Café, a meeting space where tourists in Montgomery could learn about its history through methods such as spoken word and visual art.[9]
During 2012, Browder, working in a program called Haven, took a group of 56 students from Montgomery to Washington D.C to watch the Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama, which focused on whether youth being sentenced to death in prison was constitutional.[20] [21] Browder then started a youth empowerment initiative, hosting art-centered programs for schools and other youth-led conferences.[22]
I Am More Than Tours started in 2016, using art and history to teach Montgomery's history[9]. Browder states her mission is to tell the real, unvarnished truth about Montgomery, Alabama, and its past.[23]
In March 2021, Browder held an event in Los Angeles where she asked the public to bring discarded metal objects so they could be melted down in order to create a monument to the mothers of gynecology, enslaved women who were operated on by J. Marion Sims. The monument is currently being completed in San Francisco. Sims reported in his own medical literature that Anarcha was 17 and pregnant when he completed the first of 30 total surgeries on her; Lucy spent three months in recovery from a surgery of his[24]. Browder said to the San Francisco Chronicle: "If you’ve ever had a pap smear, you have Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey to thank." The monument has been erected in Montgomery, Alabama.[25] "Discarded objects represent how Black women have been treated in this country,” Browder said to The LA Times. “But it also represents the beauty that’s in the broken and the discarded."
Notable work[edit]
Browder’s work has been exhibited around the world, most notably the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama[2].
Browder’s mural for Black Lives Matter was painted near the site of Montgomery’s former slave market and was featured on The TODAY show..[26] She was the designer, artist and curator of the mural which is located at the historical Montgomery Slave Auction[26]
Browder’s work has been featured in The New York Times as a notable representation of Montgomery’s complicated past[27] and as a representation of the evolution of civil rights[28] as well as commemorating the centennial ratification of women’s right to vote.[29] She was the designer and artist of #TheMarchContinues Mural at the SPLC[30].
In spring 2020, Browder organized and hosted Sojourn: For Truth and Justice in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, a two-day event which combined an ecumenical morning service, a visit to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, a street art fair, and a fountain tour at the historic slave auction in downtown Montgomery.[31]
In 2014, Browder was featured on TEDx River Region in 2014 with the speech entitled I AM MORE THAN, in which she worked to dispel stereotypes, generalizations, and statistics to fight racial bias.[32]
Awards[edit]
Browder was given the Community Hero Award by the Mayor of Montgomery, Todd Strange, for her efforts as a bridge builder in her community using art, history, and conservation.[33]
Governor Kay Ivey presented Browder with the Rising Star in Tourism Award from the state of Alabama.[33]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "The statue of a doctor who experimented on enslaved women still stands in Alabama. But now there's also a monument to his victims". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Glusac, Elaine (2018-05-03). "36 Hours in Montgomery, Ala". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "Anarcha Lucy Betsey Monument". Anarcha Lucy Betsey. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "Michelle Browder announces Anarcha statue". www.montgomeryadvertiser.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ↑ Staff, WSFA. "Montgomery monument to honor 'mothers of gynecology'". https://www.wsfa.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "Race Capitol: Birth of a Nation: Mothers of Gynecology on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ↑ Browder, Michelle. "The More Up Campus" (PDF). anarchalucybetsey.org. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Arts". valiantcross.org. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "More Than Tours". iammorethan7053. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "USA TODAY". www.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
- ↑ "Revitalizing Montgomery without erasing markers of the past". PBS NewsHour. 2018-06-01. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "Black Lives Matter mural in Alabama has historical significance". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ Matchan, Linda (February 21, 2019). "Sudbury woman is at center of restoration and reconciliation in Montgomery, Ala. - The Boston Globe". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "One Woman's Guide to Hidden Historical Gems in Montgomery, Alabama | National Trust for Historic Preservation". savingplaces.org. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "Take a road trip through Alabama's civil rights history". Travel. 2019-02-01. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ Glusac, Elaine (2018-05-03). "36 Hours in Montgomery, Ala. (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "StoryCorps: Curtis and Michelle Browder". 90.1 FM WABE. 2013-12-10. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 "Michelle Browder". genwnow.com. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "I AM MORE THAN…™ ABOUT". iammorethan7053. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "Miller v. Alabama". oyez.org. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "1st I Am More Than Youth Forum and Rally - June 2, 2012 - YouTube". Retrieved 2020-12-02 – via YouTube.
- ↑ Klass, Kym. "New Montgomery: First TEDxof year tonight". The Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "Montgomery Elects Steven Reed, City's First-Ever Black Mayor". NPR. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ March 26, Jessica Zack; March 26, 2021Updated; 2021; Am, 7:01. "With 'Mothers of Gynecology,' a sculptor's tribute to enslaved women maimed for science". Datebook | San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
- ↑ Facebook; Twitter; options, Show more sharing; Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Email; URLCopied!, Copy Link; Print (2021-03-05). "Enslaved women suffered in gynecology experiments. A monument project for them visits L.A." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Black Lives Matter mural in Alabama has historical significance". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ Yuan, Jada (2018-02-27). "The 52 Places Traveler: In Montgomery, a City Embedded With Pain, Finding Progress (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ Glusac, Elaine (2018-05-03). "36 Hours in Montgomery, Ala. (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ Suri, Charu (2020-02-11). "Where to Celebrate Women's Rights This Year". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "SPLC Unveils New Mural by Local Artist and Activist". Alabama News. 2020-09-25. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
- ↑ "SOJOURN 2020 Art On the Square". iammorethan7053. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ↑ "TEDx I AM MORE THAN by Michelle Browder - YouTube". Retrieved 2021-01-21 – via YouTube.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 "Michelle Browder, Montgomery, AL". U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
External links[edit]
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