Folks, today, I am thrilled to introduce you to writer and poet KB Brookins for a conversation about climate, grief, Texas, the South, the radical power of reimagining, and the role that we can play as artists in envisioning that future.
KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker, and artist from Texas. Their work is featured in Poets.org, HuffPost, Poetry Magazine, Teen Vogue, RichesArt Gallery, American Poetry Review, Oxford American, Electric Literature, Okayplayer, and many other places. Their chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize and was named an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in Literature. KB’s debut full-length poetry collection Freedom House—just released, and I highly recommend—has been recommended by Vogue, Autostraddle, Ms. Magazine, and others.
Currently, KB is a National Endowment of the Arts fellow; MFA candidate at The University of Texas at Austin; Poet-in-Residence at Civil Rights Corps; and at work on their debut installation art project Freedom House: An Exhibition. They have earned fellowships from PEN America, Lambda Literary, and The Watering Hole among others. KB’s poem “Good Grief” won the Academy of American Poets 2022 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. Their debut memoir Pretty (Alfred A. Knopf) releases in 2024.
KB’s background in nonprofit management, student affairs, and K-12 teaching informs their cultural work. In a span of five years, they founded and led two nonprofits with friends and community members to advance LGBTQIA+ justice and nurture/amplify marginalized artists in Central Texas. For two years, KB was the Program Coordinator of the Gender and Sexuality Center at UT Austin, where they founded the Black Queer & Trans Collective and co-led the President’s LGBTQIA+ Committee.
In the realm of artivism, KB served as Project Lead for the Winter Storm Project; curated Do You Want a Revolution: ATX Artists on the Carceral State and Watch Dog: a zine about community surveillance and policing; facilitated a workshop where youth created video poems on policing in Austin, Texas schools (which can be viewed here); and hosted a variety show to raise funds for trans people’s gender affirming care. Currently, their passion lies in public speaking; workshop facilitation; consulting businesses, organizations, and individuals in their areas of interest; and projects that merge art and socio-political movement work.
This is the kind of conversation that only reaffirms my belief that there can be no possible separation between the artist and organizer—that our work is inherently political, meaningful, and has something to say.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
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