We are grateful to have spoken with Michelle Browder during today’s episode. 

Michelle is a nationally recognized artist and activist. Her work has been exhibited in four galleries, including the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. She uses her artistic talents to create restorative justice programs in juvenile detention centers, failing schools systems and after school programs for under-served youth. Michelle has mentored thousands of disadvantaged kids and created safe places for children suffering from all forms of trauma, abuse and neglect. She uses art, history and "real talk" conversation and community events to change negative narratives created by social conditioning. She is the owner and operator of More Than Tours, a tour company which provides educational tours about racial bias and history to students and tourists in Montgomery, Alabama. I Am More Than....Put Yourself in Their Shoes, is a domestic nonprofit corporation founded and directed by Michelle. The More Up Student Travel Center will house and educate youth travelers and activists visiting the Montgomery center through an established curriculum of art, historical exploration, and critical thinking. Browder’s mural for Black Lives Matter was painted near the site of Montgomery’s former slave market and was featured on The TODAY show. She was the designer, artist and curator of the mural which is located at the historical Montgomery Slave Auction. The More Up Campus aims to educate the public on reductive rights, health and justice for Black women in America.

For information regarding the More Up Campus and Mothers Of Gynecology Monument: https://www.anarchalucybetsey.org

For information on Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative: https://eji.org

Tree Speech’s host, Dori Robinson, is a director, playwright, dramaturg, and educator who seeks and develops projects that explore social consciousness, personal heritage, and the difference one individual can have on their own community. Some of her great loves include teaching, the Oxford comma, intersectional feminism, and traveling. With a Masters degree from NYU’s Educational Theatre program, she continues to share her love of Shakespeare, new play development, political theatre, and gender in performance. Dori’s original plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Boston, including: The Great Harvest, The Principal Stream, Name of a Woman, Six Wings to One, and most recently The Elm Tree with Alight Theater Guild. More information at https://www.dorirobinson.com

This week’s episode was recorded in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket people, and was produced by Jonathan Zautner and Alight Theater Guild, a 501(c)(3) created to advance compelling theatrical endeavors that showcase the diversity of our ever-changing world in order to build strong artists whose work creates empathy, challenges the status quo and unites communities. Alighttheater.org. 

Logo design by Mill Riot. 

Learn more about the podcast at: www.treespeechpodcast.com, and IG: treespeechpodcast