adrienne maree brown

Brown describes her thought as postnationalism, and others have described it as Black feminism or womanism. She also supports, among others, the Black Lives Matter and prison abolition movements. Much of her work as a writer is based on the writings of science-fiction author Octavia E. Her first book, Emergent Strategy, was published in 2017. Other books include Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, published in 2019, and We Will Not Cancel Us, published in 2020. Brown also runs podcasts and has released a music project. Additionally, she works as a doula.

• Name — adrienne maree brown • Born — 6 September 1978 • Birthplace — El Paso, Texas, US • Occupation — Writer • Education — Columbia University • Genre — Afrofuturism, science fiction, non-fiction; creative non-fiction • Subject — Activism; Community Organizing; Afrofuturism; Black Feminism; Facilitation; Social Justice; Climate Justice • Website — adriennemareebrown.net

Brown was born on September 6, 1978, in El Paso, Texas, to a mixed-race couple who met at Clemson University in South Carolina. She is the eldest of three children. Her father was in the military and she spent much of her childhood abroad in Germany (see United States military deployments), as well as in Georgia, New York, and California. As mixed-race children, Brown and her sisters experienced racism in school. Brown attended Columbia University where she studied African American Studies, political science, and voice. She was at the university when Amadou Diallo was killed by police officers in 1999. She cites this time as being pivotal to the development of her political consciousness, especially regarding issues of policing and race. She is pansexual and has recounted experiences with homophobia and sexual assault. After graduating from Columbia, brown began working with the Harm Reduction Coalition in Brooklyn, and served as a social justice facilitator at the Social Forum. She moved to Detroit in 2009 after being invited to consult with Detroit Summer in 2006, and after dating Detroit-based rapper Invincible.

From 2006, brown worked with social justice organizations in Detroit. In 2006, brown served as a consultant with Detroit Summer, based out of the Boggs Center. From this, brown developed a strong relationship with Grace Lee Boggs, whom she counts as a mentor. Brown was a major figure within the Allied Media Conference as a host and facilitator. Between 2006 and 2010, brown also worked as the executive director of the Ruckus Society. She co-founded and directed the League of Young/Pissed Off Voters. Of her work in Detroit, brown wrote, "Our actions have to be towards the world we want. We need to be guerilla gardening and turning people's heat and water on. We need to be the guerillas putting up solar panels in the hood. That's what Detroit has taught me." Brown has supported Democratic candidates in presidential elections, encouraging her readers to vote for Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Brown describes her thought as postnationalism. Others have described it as Black feminism or womanism. She has also expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In her book We Will Not Cancel Us, she expresses support for the prison abolition movement.

Brown is currently a contributor to YES!, a magazine focused on solutions journalism. Brown previously contributed to Detroit-based newspaper The Michigan Citizen and was a sex columnist for Bitch magazine.

In September 2021, brown published the novella Grievers, her first long-form work of fiction. It eventually became a trilogy: • Grievers (2021) • Maroons (2023) • Ancestors (2025)

On March 25, 2021, brown released an EP titled The Sabbatical Suite. It consists of five songs written on sabbatical in 2020, over beats by her musician friend J-Mythos. She has called it "a small odd intimate music project". She also provided background vocals on the 2023 album Javelin by Sufjan Stevens.

Alongside her sister Autumn Brown, brown runs the podcast How to Survive the End of the World, which seeks to learn "from the apocalypse with grace, rigor and curiosity" and was in its 5th season as of 2021. In June 2020, brown and Toshi Reagon began hosting the podcast Octavia's Parables, which gives an in-depth dive into Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. On June 23, 2022, brown appeared on On Being with Krista Tippett on an episode called "We are in a time of new suns".

Brown also works as a doula. She identifies as a "radical doula", because she sees it as part of her activism.

• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (AK Press, 2017) • Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation (AK Press, 2021) • We Will Not Cancel Us And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice (AK Press, 2020) • Loving Corrections (AK Press, 2024)

• Grievers (AK Press, 2021) • Maroons (AK Press, 2023) • Ancestors (AK Press, 2025)

• The Sabbatical Suite (2021) • End of the World Show (2017- current) • Octavia's Parables (2020- current)

• Dreaming in Public: Building the Occupy Movement (World Changing, 2012) • Dear Sister, "awakening" (AK Press, 2014) • Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times (AK Press, 2017) • Feminisms in Motion, "Love Is on Everyone's Lips" (AK Press, 2018) • How We Fight White Supremacy (Bold Type Books, 2019) • Beyond Survival, "What Is/Isn't Transformative Justice?" (AK Press, 2020) • Ursula K. Le Guin A Larger Reality, "A Compilation of Poems, Stories, Essays, Talks and Illustrations by Ursula K. Le Guin" (Winter Texts, 2025)

• How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office: The Anti-Politics, Un-Boring Guide to Power (Soft Skull, 2004) co-edited with William Upski Wimsatt • Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (AK Press, 2019) • Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (AK Press, 2015) co-edited with Walidah Imarisha and Sheree Renee Thomas, • Octavia Butler Strategic Reader (Allied Media Conference, 2010), co-edited with Alexis Pauline Gumbs