Autumn

Autumn is a mother, artist, and facilitator. The youngest child of an interracial marriage, rooted in the complex lineages of counter-culturalism and the military industrial complex, Autumn is a queer, mixed-race Black woman who identifies closely with her African and European lineages, and a gifted facilitator who grounds her work in healing from the trauma of oppression.

Prior to joining AORTA, Autumn served as the Executive Director of RECLAIM!, a non-profit that works to increase access to mental health support so that queer and trans youth may reclaim their lives from oppression in all its forms. She was a founding member of the Rock Dove Collective, a radical community health exchange active in New York City from 2006-2012, and she currently serves on the Board of Directors of Voices for Racial Justice and the Common Fire Foundation. Autumn brings over 15 years of experience facilitating movement strategy, organizational and strategic development with community-based and social justice organizations, and training organizers in consensus process, facilitation, and racial justice. She has taught and presented in many places across the country, as well as internationally. She has worked with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Kairos Fellows, the American Civil Liberties Union, MPD150, and the Black Visions Collective, among many others.

Autumn is a 2020 Auburn Seminary Lives of Commitment Honoree. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Autumn has also completed specialized study in Theology at Oxford University and the General Theological Seminary of New York. She is a speculative fiction and creative non-fiction writer, and her work has been published in Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (AK Press 2019), the Procyon Science Fiction Anthology (Tayen Lane Press, 2016), Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016), Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (AK Press, 2015) and Stay Solid!: A Radical Handbook for Youth (AK Press, 2013).

Autumn co-hosts the podcast “How to Survive the End of the World” with her sister, adrienne maree brown. She lives in Minneapolis with her three brilliant children.