FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: KRYSTLE BROWN
KRYSTLE BROWN (They/Them/Theirs)
Independent Artist in Salem. 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellow.
The Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship is a stipended, year-long advocacy leadership development cohort for artivists, creative workers, and emerging cultural leaders to gain the advocacy capacity necessary to achieve an equitable, inclusive, and vibrant creative sector for all in Massachusetts. Each fellow identifies a cultural policy or creative community issue that they are passionate about changing through grassroots organizing and political advocacy, and then spends their Fellowship year working with MASSCreative staff and trainers to incubate strategies to shift these issues.
Now in its third year, the 2024-2025 Fellowship cohort is focused on developing projects ranging from creating toolkits to assist rural creative communities with seeking state resources, to improving access to the arts and cultural sector.
MASSCreative is proud to feature Krystle Brown in our first spotlight of the 2024-2025 Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship cohort. Krystle joins the Fellowship as an independent artist based out of Salem who specializes in multimedia and community arts. They are using their public art practice and Fellowship experience to create a space that informs Salem residents about the overlay districts and the historical precedent of housing creation in Salem.
The Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship is possible thanks to support from the Barr Foundation.
REFLECTION FROM KRYSTLE:
There is so much more that there is to know.
I think about my evolution as an artist and citizen from the viewpoint as a lifelong student. How can I approach every step with a sense of purpose, empathy, and curiosity? What drives people to think a certain way or make certain decisions? What can we learn from each other?
My project is simple, small in relative scope, but a wholly massive undertaking – promoting housing creation in my hometown of Salem, Massachusetts through art and education. The issues around home, housing, and belonging are deep within my personal histories and are certainly not unique. There is a lot of data to sift through when considering the causes, solutions, and setbacks to the housing crisis here in Massachusetts. One of the most stark pieces of information is this:
Massachusetts faces a 200,000-home shortage to meet demand by 2030.
This is particularly apparent in Gateway Cities like Salem, where over 2,000 housing units needs to be created to meet the rising need.
There is strong hesitancy in many Massachusetts communities like Salem to promote housing density. Cemented within this hesitancy is misinformation about housing growth and dangerously negative attitudes about the unhoused and immigrants. This is where the power of art and community engagement can be activated. By providing historical context, facts backed up with trusted data, and the means to spark open dialogue, the work that I create will be one of the many tools to promote justice in Salem. This is not a solo adventure, but one that is supported by organizations such as MASSCreative and community networks focused on progress.
My work with MASSCreative, currently in its early stages, engages my deep-seated need to learn. What I have learned from the twice monthly sessions, MASSCreative advisors, and my cohort has been a transformative experience. I am surrounded by fellow creatives engaged in strengthening their communities– our communities- against a national backdrop of exploitative fear and fascism. Many of my fellow cohort members are directly targeted by the decisions from the federal government. The work that we are doing to enshrine democracy in our Commonwealth is more important than ever before in our lifetimes.
But that leaves me with you. The big you, all of us, and the little You, the person reading this now. Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you live, we cannot do this work without You.
As web-comic Lord Birthday says, “Be sturdy and full of hope”. Do not give into despair. We have so much more to gain with one another.
Let’s support each other:
Instagram: @ Krystlebrown_art
Email: krystlecbrown89@gmail.com
Website: www.krystlebrownart.com
Get involved:
