
adrienne maree brown—Pleasure Activism
Explicit content warning
08/02/19 • 68 min
adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, and is the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is a writer, social justice facilitator, pleasure activist, healer and doula living in Detroit. brown has been facilitating professionally for over fifteen years, and has worked with hundreds of organizations at all levels of scale including informal collectives, foundations, national networks and more. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast.
Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.
Mentioned in the Episode:
adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, and is the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is a writer, social justice facilitator, pleasure activist, healer and doula living in Detroit. brown has been facilitating professionally for over fifteen years, and has worked with hundreds of organizations at all levels of scale including informal collectives, foundations, national networks and more. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast.
Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Previous Episode

Sonya Passi—FreeFrom Violence, Freedom to Thrive
Sonya Passi is the founder and CEO of FreeFrom, a national organization on a mission to create pathways to financial security and long-term safety for survivors of gender-based violence. Sonya has been a domestic violence activist since she was 16 years old. Before founding FreeFrom, she launched the Family Violence Appellate Project while earning her law degree at UC Berkeley. For her work with in the field, Sonya was listed in** Forbes' 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 For Law and Policy, and she is an Ashoka, Roddenberry**, and New America CA Fellow.
Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Survivor Wealth Summit (to be held July 24-25, 2019) is a groundbreaking two-day summit to explore the concept of survivor wealth and develop a deeper understanding of financial trauma and healing. Attendees will build new skills and tools to support your own financial security as well as that of your clients and the gender-based violence movement as a whole.
Amnesty International works both at home and abroad to tackle the most pressing human rights violations.
Edgar Villanueva is the author of Decolonizing Wealth: Indigineous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance. He is a nationally recognized expert on social justice philanthropy. He has consulted with numerous philanthropies on advancing racial equity. He is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe and resides in New York City.
Saundra Davis is a financial coach, educator, consultant and motivational speaker who is nationally recognized for her work with community-based organizations that focus on asset building for the working poor. She is the executive director and founder of Sage Financial Solutions, an organization dedicated to helping communities develop comprehensive financial education programs.
Chani Nicholas is a writer and astrologer. She has been a student of astrology for the past 30 years and a counseling astrologer for over 20 years. She aims to make astrology practical, approachable, and useful. She believes the personal is political, art is magic, and that all should have access to the healing practices that we need. Writing horoscopes is her way of creating a free, communal, online space where healing can occur.
Family Violence Appellate Project is the only nonprofit in California dedicated to helping domestic violence survivors and their children by appealing dangerous trial court decisions on their behalf, for free. We help survivors of abuse get the safety and justice they deserve.
Next Episode

Carmen Maria Machado—Writing In The Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. She lives in Philadelphia with her wife.
Jillian Bessett: The voice in the intro and outro belong to songwriter Jillian Bessett. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station.
Mentioned in the Episode:
Machado's essay in Guernica: "The Trash Heap Has Spoken"
Keven Brockmeier's The Human Soul As A Rube Goldberg Device
Toni Morrison: "“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
Machado's essay on Medium ; "Gaslight Nation"
Gaslight, 1944 film featuring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer
Machado's story "Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU"
"Voices Carry" song and video by 'Til Tuesday
Writers:
Toni Morrison (The Pieces I Am, phenomenal documentary on her life now on Netflix)
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/the-matriarchitects-165415/adrienne-maree-brownpleasure-activism-8992609"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to adrienne maree brown—pleasure activism on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy