Wednesday, March 8, 2023
12:30 – 2:30 pm, PST
Osher Theater, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94720)
In this public conversation, BSC Fellow Rashad Arman Timmons will engage Michael Brown Sr. and Cal Brown in conversation about their continued fight to keep the memory and legacy of Michael Brown Jr. alive. The discussion will consider the enduring significance of Ferguson in the nation’s racial landscape and ponder black grief as a resource for social transformation. This event will offer the opportunity to dialogue with the Brown family and think collaboratively about how to build a world free of racial violence.
Panelists
Rashad Arman Timmons, Abolition Democracy Dissertation Fellow, Black Studies Collaboratory and PhD Candidate African American Studies, UC Berkeley
Rashad Arman Timmons is a community builder, keyboardist, writer, and black feminist educator from Detroit, Michigan. A beloved child of factory workers, urban gardeners, prayer warriors, and musicians, Rashad is a lifelong student of the ways black folk manipulate and adorn the built environment to envision freedom.
A doctoral candidate in African Diaspora Studies and New Media Studies, Rashad’s dissertation explores urban infrastructures as critical sites where the lived social relations that come to define blackness are enacted, visualized, and challenged. He engages how black subjects in Ferguson, Missouri reorder sedimented geographies of power by seizing infrastructures as sites of black political insurgency, wake work, tactical disruption, and sabotage.
Michael Brown Sr, Father of Michael Brown Jr. and Founder, The Michael Brown Organization/Chosen For Change
Michael Brown, Sr. is a husband, father, transformative public speaker, forgiveness coach, and co-founder of the Michael Brown Sr. Chosen for Change Organization. After the devastating murder of his son Mike Brown, Jr. in 2014, he embarked on a mission to provide care and support to families processing unthinkable loss. Turning his own pain into power, Michael has dedicated his life to transforming inner-city communities through youth empowerment and strengthening mournful families through collective healing. Michael is especially committed to offering radical aid to ailing fathers because their experiences of parental grief are often minimized and discounted by society. Toward this effort, he convenes the organization’s Chosen Fathers program to provide a compassionate gathering space for fathers who have lost children to violence. Michael loves eating Cal’s cooking, working on cars, spending time with family and friends, and creating meaningful change with his village.
Cal Brown, Stepmother of Michael Brown Jr. and Co-Founder, The Michael Brown Organization/Chosen For Change
Cal D. Brown is a wife, mother, community healer, change agent, and co-founder of the Michael Brown Sr. Chosen for Change Organization. She is a passionate advocate for families across the world grieving the loss of a child to violence. A firm believer that community care can help parents cope, heal, and reinvent themselves after tragic loss, she co-leads grief support circles, resource drives, advocacy campaigns, and youth mentoring programs. These initiatives strengthen heartbroken families and build safer environments for marginalized youth to live freely. Cal loves cooking, spending time with friends and family, and spreading light in her community.
Accessibility
This event is free and open to the public. The venue is wheelchair accessible. ASL interpretation will be provided. If you need accommodations to fully participate, please contact Barbara Montano at bmontano14@berkeley.edu or 510-664-4324 with as much advance notice as possible. Please refrain from wearing any scented products, including essential oils.
Sister Event: Michael Brown’s Family Presents: Ferguson Rises in Oakland
Michael Brown, Jr. was a beloved, Black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri. He was murdered by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on August 9th, 2014. His killing ignited a global movement against police and state violence. Following his tragic death, Michael Brown Jr.’s father and stepmother founded the Michael Brown Sr. Chosen for Change Organization to continue the fight for justice and honor his memory.
The Anti Police-Terror Project, in collaboration with Rashad Arman Timmons (PhD candidate in African American Studies at UC Berkeley), is honored to host the Brown family in Oakland for a screening of their documentary Ferguson Rises. The film screening will take place at New Parkway Theater on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
