On Intergenerational Activism with adrienne maree brown and Fania Davis

Dec 31, 2021

鈥淚t feels like the universe is up to something,鈥� adrienne maree brown said as she began a conversation with Fania Davis during Day 1 of YES! Fest. Indeed, within minutes of their introduction, the author, activist, and podcast host found kinship and deep-rooted connection with the legendary activist, organizer, and civil rights champion.

In their wide-ranging, intergenerational conversation, brown and Davis explore their individual and shared lineages of activism, their own awakenings and groundings, and the commonalities they share across identity, experience, and education. They both challenge traditional constructs of time, and the binary structures that so often constrain creative solutions. Amid appreciation for one another鈥檚 work and journeys, Davis and brown invite introspection and appreciation for those who have gone before them and helped pave the way for their own activism, as well as those young people who are challenging the status quo today, and demanding a better tomorrow.

Ultimately, Davis and brown explore the central question: What does it mean to reclaim our whole humanity? In all its complexity, in all its imperfection and contradiction, and while facing such catastrophic systemic failures, how do we hold on to who we are and what really matters? Davis and brown answer these questions with heart, wisdom, and humility, while inviting listeners to look inside and ask themselves the same question.

Enjoy the dance between brown and Davis in this video.

Sunnivie Brydum is the managing editor at YES! An award-winning investigative journalist with a background covering LGBTQ equality, Sunnivie previously led digital coverage at The Advocate, Free Speech TV, and Out Front Colorado. Their writing has appeared in Vox, Religion Dispatches, them., and elsewhere. She has a degree in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and is a co-founder of , an annual symposium in Medell铆n, Colombia, that amplifies the stories of LGBTQ people in Latin America. They are based in Seattle, speak English and Spanish, and are a member of NLGJA, SPJ, and ONA.