Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: I’m Still Here
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://austinchanning.com/
CITY: Grand Rapids
STATE: MI
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Tommie; children: one son.
EDUCATION:North Park University, business degree; Marygrove College (Detroit, MI), master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and activist. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, residential director, multicultural liaison. Also, worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Willow Creek Community Church; teaches workshops.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including Relevant, Sojourners, and Mutuality. Columnist for Today’s Christian Woman.
SIDELIGHTS
Austin Channing Brown is a writer and activist. She holds degrees from North Park University and Marygrove College. Brown has worked as a residential director and multicultural liaison for Calvin College, as well as for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Willow Creek Community Church. She teaches workshops on the convergence of faith, gender, and race, with a focus on the black experience.
In 2018, Brown released her first book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. The volume opens with Brown recalling her childhood in Toledo, Ohio. The neighborhood she grew up in was largely white, leading Brown to have less of an understanding of black culture during her earliest years. However, she moved to Cleveland after the divorce of her parents, and she became part of an African-American community there. As she transitioned into adulthood, Brown became more interested in black culture and history. She eventually gained some clarity on race relations in America and realized that society is organized to maintain white supremacy and subjugate black people. Brown shares her anger at the status quo and discusses her commitment to addressing people of color and working to change race relations in America.
In an interview with Dianca Potts, contributor to the Signature website, Brown stated: “Coping with the exhaustion of being a black woman in America has come in form of community. Sharing community with my parents and siblings, with my friends and especially other black women, is everything to me. Writing this book allowed me to take a step back to investigate my own feelings, emotions.” Brown continued: “I was able to ask myself, how does this feel? What is my first reaction when that happens? What is the right word to describe my thought process? It was both weird and invigorating trying to describe what it felt like to be in my body during different points in my life.” Brown also told Potts: “Writing this book allowed me to look back over a bunch of experiences talking about race, and decide when my own actions were healthy or unhealthy.”
Critics offered favorable assessments of I’m Still Here. A Publishers Weekly reviewer suggested: “Brown’s authoritative tone and moving message make this a must-read for those interested in racial justice within the Christian community.” Lesley Williams, writer in Booklist, noted that the book represented “an eloquent argument for meaningful reconciliation focused on racial injustice rather than white feelings.” “Throughout the book, the author writes with raw emotion and candid self-reflection,” commented a Kirkus Reviews contributor. The same contributor described the volume as “a powerful and necessarily uncomfortable text lacking suggestions for a path forward.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 1, 2018, Lesley Williams, review of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, p. 35.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of I’m Still Here.
Publishers Weekly, March 26, 2018, review of I’m Still Here, p. 110.
ONLINE
Austin Channing Brown website, http://austinchanning.com/ (July 2, 2018).
Chaffee Management Group website, http://www.chaffeemanagement.com/ (July 2, 2018), author profile.
Signature, http://www.signature-reads.com/ (May 15, 2018), Dianca Potts, author interview.
Austin Channing Brown is a leading new voice on racial justice, and author of Im Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. Austin is committed to exploring the intersections of racial justice, faith and black womanhood. Her workshops are one of a kind, infused with justice, pop culture, humor, and truth-telling. Whether she is being interviewed, lecturing, or leading a workshop, Austin is sure to illicit a full range of emotions as she invites you to celebrate blackness with her.
Her first book released in May 2018, shooting to the top 20 of Amazon's bestsellers list. IM STILL HERE has received acclaim from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and a host of others reviewers. Even Chelsea Clinton and Brene Brown have tweeted about this memoir. Austin's writing can also be found in Sojourners Magazine, Relevant Magazine, Mutuality Magazine, and other places around the web. For a year, she wrote a column called Wild Hope for Today's Christian Woman which is still accessible to readers. IM STILL HERE has been featured in Religion News Service, On Being, The Chicago Trib, Shondaland, Popsugar, Relevant, BitchMedia, and more. Austin is excited to unpack the themes of IM STILL HERE with her passionate readers. Book her to talk about racial justice, black womanhood, or the writing process- just know Austin holds no punches as she equally challenges and invites listeners through story.
Austin attended North Park University where she earned a degree in business management. She also has a masters degree in social justice from Marygrove College in Detroit, MI. Since earning her masters, Austin has worked with nonprofits, churches, parachurch ministries, and universities in both the urban and suburban context for the advancement of racial justice and reconciliation. Most recently she served as a Resident Director and Multicultural Liaison at Calvin College. There she was able to work with and learn from millennials for three years as they navigated college life. Austin misses living in Chicago, IL but is making Grand Rapids home with her husband, Tommie, their son and spoiled puppy.
If you are ready to inquire about Austin's schedule, start here!
Austin Channing Brown
Website
Austin Channing Brown is a leading new voice on racial justice, and author of I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. Austin is committed to exploring the intersections of racial justice, faith and black womanhood. Her workshops are one of a kind, infused with justice, pop culture, humor, and truth-telling. Whether she is being interviewed, lecturing, or leading a workshop, Austin is sure to illicit a full range of emotions as she invites you to celebrate blackness with her.
Austin earned a master’s degree in social justice from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. Building on the foundation of her graduate work, she directed a short-term missions site on the west side of Chicago, creating interactive opportunities for youth to engage issues of poverty and injustice. She has also worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters, Willow Creek Community Church, Calvin College, and a number of other small nonprofits.
Austin now travels the country sharing her message at universities, conferences, nonprofit organizations and churches. She has been featured at the Justice Conference, Why Christian Conference, the CCDA National Conference, the Festival of Faith & Writing and more.
Austin writes on her popular blog austinchanning.com. She has also contributed to Sojourners, Relevant, Todays Christian Woman and various publications. Austin’s first book released in May 2018, shooting to the top 20 on Amazon’s bestsellers lists. Her memoir, I'M STILL HERE, has received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, from Glennon Doyle and Lecrae. It even earned tweets from Chelsea Clinton and Brene Brown. It has been featured in Religion News Service, Popsugar, Shonadland, The Chicago Trib, On Being and more. Austin is excited for the opportunity to creatively unpack the themes of her book with readers.
She lives in Grand Rapids, MI with her husband Tommie Brown, their son and puppy.
QUOTED: "Coping with the exhaustion of being a black woman in America has come in form of community. Sharing community with my parents and siblings, with my friends and especially other black women, is everything to me. Writing this book allowed me to take a step back to investigate my own feelings, emotions."
"I was able to ask myself, how does this feel? What is my first reaction when that happens? What is the right word to describe my thought process? It was both weird and invigorating trying to describe what it felt like to be in my body during different points in my life."
"Writing this book allowed me to look back over a bunch of experiences talking about race, and decide when my own actions were healthy or unhealthy."
A Conversation with Austin Channing Brown, Author of I’m Still Here
By DIANCA POTTS
May 15, 2018
Austin Channing Brown/Photo © Freddie Bennett
At the end of I’m Still Here’s first chapter, Austin Channing Brown writes, “I offer this story in hopes that we will embody a community not afraid to name whiteness, celebrate Blackness, and in a world still run on systems of racial oppression, begin to see that there’s another way.” Filled with bravery, heart, and wisdom, Brown’s debut is as timely as it is true. Through Brown’s eyes readers discover the way race, gender, and religion can shape a person and how America’s failure to reckon with its past has impacted the soul and psyche of its citizens. I’m Still Here grapples with what it means to be Black, to be Christian, to be an activist, and to be a truth teller. Its pages are simultaneously searing and sincere. A gospel in its own rite, Brown’s story is a parable of survival and hope.
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In celebration of I’m Still Here’s release, we spoke with Brown about the inspiration behind her book, her creative process, and the reason why intentionally celebrating Blackness matters.
SIGNATURE: In the first chapter of your book you explore the exhaustion that goes hand in hand with being a Black American. What’s the earliest moment you can remember having to reckon with that exhaustion? Can you describe how you coped with that exhaustion and how your book has allowed for you to process the impact of the frustrations associated with existing in racist (and often times sexist) spaces?
AUSTIN CHANNING BROWN: I always knew that Austin was a “boys name.” I was very used to peers, teachers, and others trying to feminize my name when being introduced to me. Also, I grew up in the late eighties/early nineties when everything became personalized — keychains, toy license plates, plastic cups, etc. Every time I found the name Austin among the trinkets, I discovered it in blue or orange or the colors marked for boys. But the first time I was truly exhausted by this came around the age of eight when a librarian didn’t believe me when I told her my name. Rather than giving an awkward laugh and continuing the conversation, she treated me with suspicion. It made me really upset, and then my mother explained that she and my dad had purposefully given me a name that others would associate with white men in order to help my bypass discrimination."One of my rituals for writing was to always park myself under the photos of my ancestors."
TWEET THIS QUOTE
Coping with the exhaustion of being a black woman in America has come in form of community. Sharing community with my parents and siblings, with my friends and especially other black women, is everything to me. Writing this book allowed me to take a step back to investigate my own feelings, emotions. I was able to ask myself, how does this feel? What is my first reaction when that happens? What is the right word to describe my thought process? It was both weird and invigorating trying to describe what it felt like to be in my body during different points in my life.
SIG: Your book grapples headfirst with the intersection of race, gender, and class. How has your multifaceted identity as an individual and as a writer shaped your creative process while writing I’m Still Here?
ACB: One of my rituals for writing was to always park myself under the photos of my ancestors. Looking into their faces or seeing their names on census records made it feel like their strength was in the room with me. I felt very much like I was holding space for their wisdom, and how their struggles live on today. It was comforting and challenging to write up to all that they endured — the foundation they laid for me.
SIG: The title of your book feels affirmational in away. It highlights how powerful it can be to remind those who fail to affirm your humanity (and the rights that go along with it) that you aren’t going to brush away their mistreatment. In a way, this reminder, embodied by the pages of your book, holds America’s past and present up to the light. You’re holding our nation accountable for its mistreatment of its citizens and the legacy that mistreatment fostered. How did writing your book give you solace about America’s fraught relationship with race? How did this project heal you?
ACB: I’m not sure that it healed me, but it did help me become clear about what I think about what I experience. There were thoughts I had that were kind of a jumbled mess, or questions I wasn’t sure I was prepared to answer. But having to write out declarative sentences forced me to ask myself what I truly believe about this country’s relationship to race. So I appreciate my own clarity, but I am also trying to give myself space to keep learning, keep growing, keep determining which declarations I stand by and which need to be modified. I hope never to outgrow that.
SIG: In the third chapter of your book, “The Other Side of Harmony,” you highlight the way white fragility and racism can alter the ideological application of religion and politics, and its impact on an individual’s sense of identity and self-esteem (the final sentences of the chapter come to mind here: “The lack of confrontation had done her no favors. As high school came to an end, I took this lesson with me and became determined always to question what looks like unity at first glance.”). This dilution of ideology and intention, due to the weight of systemic injustice, becomes a part of how people see the world and ultimately, how they treat others. Did writing your book help you find new ways to confront white fragility and its aftermath? How did I’m Still Here change your expectations of or hopes for building community and coalition across the color line?
ACB: It did! Writing this book allowed me to look back over a bunch of experiences talking about race, and decide when my own actions were healthy or unhealthy. For example, it was during the writing process that I realized how much more whole I feel when I confront white guilt by asking “so what will you do as a result?” If not for this project, I am not sure I would have become crystal clear as to why that reaction feels so much more healthy; and therefore allows me to continue to participate in this work.
SIG: In the “The Story We Tell,” you wrestle with the weight of American history and how the narratives we’re taught are true are often skewed and comprise erasures. Rather than telling the truth, much of what students learn in school is sanitized, a palatable retelling of something much more harrowing. Can you talk a bit about how this realization helped you reclaim your own history and how your search for the truth helped you tell your story?
ACB: Studying more about history helped me understand the experiences my own ancestors survived. During school, history was just a matter of dates and people I had to memorize for a test. But moving deeper into black history helped me connect to my own grandmother, great grandmother, and so on. I have greater appreciation for what each generation faced.
SIG: Towards the end of your book, you invoke the voices of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde as you unpack the ways in which rage and frustration can fuel creativity and action. Has working through your experiences as a Black American changed your creative vision or practice in any way?
ACB: Because of this project, I find myself thinking more about how I enter into racial justice conversations. I want to be more mindful, more intentional about celebrating blackness even as I continue to unpack whiteness. It’s important to me to continue finding ways to lift up black excellence, proclaim our inherent dignity, and celebrate the black community.
SIG: What was the most powerful lesson that writing I’m Still Here taught you?
ACB: That I can do hard, creative things … like write a book.
QUOTED: "Brown's authoritative tone and moving message make this a must-read for
those interested in racial justice within the Christian community."
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Print Marked Items
* I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World
Made for Whiteness
Publishers Weekly.
265.13 (Mar. 26, 2018): p110+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Austin Channing Brown. Convergent, $25 (187p) ISBN 978-1-5247-6085-4
In this powerful book, Brown is up front about her exhaustion with white people as she meticulously details
the experience of being a black woman in modern American society. After explaining that her parents
named her Austin so that potential employers would "assume you are a white man," she recreates a typical
interview and first few months at a new job: "Every pair of eyes looks at me in surprise.... Should they have
known? Am I now more impressive or less impressive? ... It would be comical if it wasn't so damn
disappointing." In clear prose, she relates anecdotes to shed light on racial injustices that are systematically
reinforced by the standards of white society. Brown, a Christian, believes the history of American
Christianity is deeply intertwined with race relations and that Christian communities need to play a large
role in racial reconciliation. Explaining that change needs to come from acknowledgement of systemic
inequalities, Brown calls on readers to live their professed ideals rather than simply state them. Though the
writing style can be preachy, Brown's authoritative tone and moving message make this a mustread for
those interested in racial justice within the Christian community. (May.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"* I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness." Publishers Weekly, 26 Mar. 2018, p.
110+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532997201/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=885c6366. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532997201
QUOTED: "an eloquent argument for meaningful reconciliation focused on racial injustice rather than white feelings."
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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World
Made for Whiteness
Lesley Williams
Booklist.
114.15 (Apr. 1, 2018): p35.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. By Austin Channing Brown. May 2018.
192p. Crown/Convergent, $25(9781524760854).300
We've seen this before, persistent white refusal to acknowledge structural racism, the softening of America's
racist history, and the lone black person as reluctant racism confessor for white colleagues. Now Brown
explores racial ignorance within the white church, noting how Christian values of hope, forgiveness, and
unconditional love do not seem to apply to black people but instead give "nice white people" a pass on their
racism. Brown poignantly describes the death of her cousin in jail, "I had to reject the notion that my
cousin's life was somehow less valuable because he did not meet 'Christian criteria of innocence and
perfection." In contrast, the "Black Jesus" of her home church "understood the accused, the incarcerated, the
criminals," and expressed righteous anger towards the corrupt. Brown passionately rejects facile reliance on
"hope," stating that "in order for me to stay in this work, hope must die" and "[t]he death of hope gives way
to a sadness that heals, to anger that inspires, to a wisdom that empowers me." An eloquent argument for
meaningful reconciliation focused on racial injustice rather than white feelings.--Lesley Williams
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Williams, Lesley. "I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2018, p.
35. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534956793/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6df756c9. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534956793
QUOTED: "Throughout the book, the author writes with raw emotion and candid self-reflection."
"a powerful and necessarily uncomfortable text lacking suggestions for a path forward."
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Brown, Austin Channing: I'M STILL
HERE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Brown, Austin Channing I'M STILL HERE Convergent/Crown (Adult Nonfiction) $25.00 5, 15 ISBN: 978-
1-5247-6085-4
The impassioned story of one woman's journey into activism.
Brown's book is part memoir and part jeremiad against American whiteness. She begins by describing her
youth in a largely white neighborhood of Toledo. After her parents' divorce, she went on to discover black
culture, and affirm her own identity, in an African-American Cleveland neighborhood and, especially, in a
black church. Through high school and then into college, Brown learned more about black history and
culture and became more involved with racial reconciliation efforts. She especially saw herself as a possible
bridge between black and white cultures. Most of her work has been through churches and progressive
Christian organizations, but faith plays only a minor role in this book. The focus of the narrative is on the
author's recognition of--and fight against--"America's commitment to violent, abusive, exploitative,
immoral white supremacy, which seeks the absolute control of Black bodies." Brown pulls no punches as
she lambasts white culture for being, even at its most liberal, myopic and self-serving. She argues that
"white fragility" and "white guilt" are ways in which whites absolve themselves of inherent racism.
Discussing whites who, after her presentations on racism, confess to her their own racist opinions and
actions, she points out that she cannot "offer absolution....I am not a priest for the white soul." Throughout
the book, the author writes with raw emotion and candid self-reflection. "I have become very intimate with
anger," she writes. Brown's work will resonate with other activists of color, though it provides little
direction for others. The author is clear that racism and white supremacy are here to stay and that even
attempts to educate and enlighten are rarely fruitful. "I underestimated the enduring power, the lethal
imagination, the desire for blood of white supremacy," she writes. And later: "hope for me has died one
thousand deaths."
A powerful and necessarily uncomfortable text lacking suggestions for a path forward.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Brown, Austin Channing: I'M STILL HERE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650618/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6cc2c3b1.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650618