Collections by Michelle Brown

Growing up on Detroit’s northwest side C. Imani Williams loved learning about Black culture. Books, cheerleading, softball, and was involved in other community-based activities. While living in Detroit Imani was the first full-time employee of the Ruth Ellis Center. She was a founder of PFLAG Family Reunion — Detroit Chapter and served on the board of Black Pride Society. Her background includes work in Guidance and Counseling, Communications/Journalism, and Creative-Writing. She has written for several publications including Michigan’s Between the Lines Newspaper and a weekly column Queer Voices from an Urban Bush Sista!

Now living in Las Vegas, NV she is determined to live her purpose as a Healing Artist, she has used a combination of Holistic Creative Arts including yoga, meditation, mindfulness, poetry, essays, and jewelry design to empower others   Her “Standing on United Love – Soul Project provides a safe space where community members can explore the issues of the day affecting Black communities including Mental illness in Black communities, Healing from Childhood Trauma, Sex On The Table: Decoding Black Sexual Politics, and Queering Black Spaces.

Imani’s work pays homage to the ancestors and elders who paved the way while she works towards a Black art-infused better tomorrow.  This is the legacy she wants to leave not just for her community but especially for her children and grandchildren.

Connecticut is home for Edson where he not only lives but makes a difference in his community as Executive Director of the Triangle Community Center. Edson was born in El Salvador but has lived most of his life in Connecticut. Norwalk, 

He started with the Center as a volunteer serving on various committees and in different board positions until he landed at the top – serving as board chairperson bringing his professional experience and passion to the organization.

What was supposed to be only an interim term as Executive Director, Edson threw his hat into the ring and made the position became permanent.

Triangle Community Center empowers and advocates for LGBTQ people in Connecticut through programming focused on health, community, and learning. Although housed in Norwalk, the Center services all of Fairfield County and beyond.

The Center provides programs, clinical services, resources and hotlines for members of the LGBTQ community as well as community education and training.

Edson took the reins during the pandemic but has gone in each day to be there for community members. The Center has hosted virtual events, and small in-person activities keeping the community safe and connected.

There have been challenges but also opportunities to learn and grow.

More than just a Center, Edson and the Triangle Community Center staff work to make it a safe, welcoming space and home for Connecticut’s LGBTQ community.

Jennifer Miracle-Best has a passion for helping people to understand the intricacies of sexual and gender identity. Although some of her knowledge came from her studies at Central Michigan University and her experience as a member of CMU’s Office of Gay & Lesbian Programs speakers bureau and the Director of the LGBT Resource Center at The University of Georgia, most of her wisdom came from her personal journey to find her personal truth.

Her time at the University of Georgia, and perhaps even more so, her relationship with her husband, Ethan, has broadened her perspective on gender and caused her to challenge even the most basic, mundane, constructions of gender. It is through these experiences, as well as the experiences of her own gender expression and the assumptions people make about her based on it, that she has arrived at this radical, game-changer idea about how to free the world from gender.

These days she spends her time promoting her book "Divinely Queer: My Journey to Spirituality Through Sexuality" and spreading the good word that despite the messages that our society perpetuates about God and religion, that our queerness is absolutely Divine.

A life-long resident of Wilmington, Delaware, DeShanna Neal is the founder of Intersections of Pride Foundation. ​

They are the co-organizer and creator of New Castle County's first ever LGBTQ Youth Pride Festival, as well as Delaware's first Drag Queen Story Hour. 

But first and foremost, she is a is a Black queer, mother. Her work into advocacy and activism started off on a very accidental foot when her 3-year-old announced, “I am a girl.”   Trinity was classified as male at birth based on anatomy but had the internal sense of being female.

She didn’t have to think twice when a therapist asked her if she wanted a happy little girl or a dead little boy. She has been fighting for her daughter ever since, taking on school officials who were uncomfortable with Trinity’s feminine clothing, with family members who accused them of feeding the child’s mental illness, with acquaintances who questioned their parenting. She battled state Medicaid, so Trinity’s puberty blockers were covered. If you mess with this mama bear, you are going to get bit.

Now DeShanna is a nationally known transgender rights champion but she never sought the limelight. Together with Trinity, DeShanna works to change hearts and minds.  

Intersections of Pride Foundation works to provide support, resources, and education while also raising awareness to the BIPOC, LGBTQ, Homeless, and other marginalized communities’ intersections.

Jena Ball​ has traveled the world telling, sharing, and collecting stories along the way. It was clear to her that people are hungry for connection. They need places to meet to comfort, console and encourage one another and tools that allow them to communicate and share ideas effectively. This has driven her endeavors and led to her most recent project, Braided Lives, Braided Lives is designed to find, publish, and "braid" the stories of our lives into a larger narrative.

This multimedia storyteller has used her big picture thinking and artistic skills to develop and execute large-scale projects. She looks for ways to work with those who think outside the box, work collaboratively, and are not afraid to fail forward.

She started a children's media property called CritterKin. Critter Kin used stories and project-based learning to teach kids social-emotional and core communication skills to help each child discover, develop, and share their unique interests and abilities so they can become kind, compassionate, and competent adults.

Her most recent project, Braided Lives. It was clear to Ball that people are hungry for connection. They need places to meet to comfort, console, and encourage one another and tools that allow them to communicate and share ideas effectively. Braided Lives is designed to find, publish, and "braid" the stories of our lives into a larger narrative that offers insights into what it means to be human. 

She has lived in California, Japan, Hawaii and now North Carolina telling and collecting stories along the way.

Its hard to believe that it’s been eight years since Kevin Terrell Heard founded the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce. In those eight years, he has grown, stumbled but mostly learned.

In 2017, Kevin was honored as one of Crain’s Detroit Twenty in their 20’s for his work with the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

In 2021 the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers organizations recognized and honored Kevin as a game changer.

The Detroit native was inspired to start the city's Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce after returning from Atanta. Since founding the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce eight years ago, Heard has worked tirelessly to advocate for inclusive business practices while educating businesses on LGBTQ+ certification and business growth.

While Heard is happy to receive recognition for his efforts, he said there's still an incredible amount of work to be done.

Kevin will talk about his work with the LGBT Chamber and why entrepreneurs, businesses, allies and others should support the Chamber not just by attending events and supporting members but by joining the organization as well.

The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce is currently seeking new board members, Heard explains the qualifications for board membership and explains what it takes to be a Chamber Game Changer.

Ryan O'Donnell is an activist who cares deeply about social and environmental justice. This Chicago native attended Howard University and is an endless well of talent. His wide array of skills makes him tend to enhance anything that he is involved in as he fights for justice including organizing to help refugees and connecting with animal rights and environmental activists.

O’Donnell wants to shine a light on the plight of LGBTQI+ refugees, particularly in The Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

The Kakuma Refugee Camp has always been full of problems: dust storms, high temperatures, poisonous spiders, snakes, and scorpions, outbreaks of malaria, cholera, and other hardships especially if you are LGBTQIA. Many of these refugees fled homophobic and transphobic violence in nearby Uganda but continue to face threats and violence from locals and other refugees for the simple reason that they are LGBTQI. 

LGBTQI people in Africa are frequently subject to mob and state-sponsored violence and criminalization. Many are forced to become refugees, and when they flee for their lives and leave behind their homes, expecting to find safety—to get the rights that were denied in their home countries

O’Donnell believes it is important to shine a light on the LGBTQI refugees in Kakuma and reminds us that “Until we are all free, none of us are free.”

He works with "Team Rainbow Kakuma" a coalition of LGBTQI refugees in Kakuma, Kenya. They face constant anti-LGBTQI persecution and violence that UNHCR allows. The Coalition uses democratic principles to organize a network of LGBTQI refugees throughout all of Kakuma to support each other.

Originally from Detroit, Marlon Brown heard the call to “Go West Young Man” and that’s exactly what he did! Brown and his husband Dani Tirrell left Detroit and settled in Seattle.

Marlon began Bessie’s Cakes named in tribute to his grandmother who was known in her family for making delicious signature cakes, pies, and cobblers. After years of continuing to bake cakes and cobblers for family and friends, Marlon was established Bessie’s Cakes to continue the legacy of Bessie Mae Ingram.

His passion however was in social justice specifically in building racial equity.  As a certified Equity and Social Justice practitioner, Marlon specializes in leadership coaching, facilitation/training, and organizational development with an emphasis on equity and customer service.  Marlon is also very skilled and experienced in “change agent” mentoring, racial caucusing and policy development/implementation. As a partner at Racial Equity Consultants LLC, he creates and advises equity committees/teams and anti-racist curriculum development. 

He and Dani may be living in Seattle, but Detroit will always be home. Every Sunday you can join Marlon as he brings a little bit of gospel to the Seattle airwaves on his radio show Church with Mr. B on Hollow Earth Radio

You may know Debbie David as a visible member of metro-Detroit’s transgender community. You may know her from her days at the aahCapella Theater in the NoHo arts district in North Hollywood California. And if you are a Star Trek fan, you know her for her recurring role as Ensign Russell on both The Next Generation and Voyager series. Her career includes performances as a background or extra on a host of television series and movies.

Her path from Shelbyville, Kentucky to New York, Hollywood, and ultimately metro-Detroit, as an actor and trans woman, has been filled with challenges and pain both personally and professionally. 

She shares so much -the good, the bad, even the not so pretty - no regrets including some backstories from her days on the movie set and with Star Trek aas Ensign ussell.

Activist, singer, and former actor Debbie David is the National Secretary of the United States Transgender Advocacy. She hosts Dragopolist Television’s Debbie in the D.

Debbie in the D is broadcasting news about this year’s Pride Season activities while working to Aid Trans-Persons and Educate the Public.

As a member of Christ the Good Shepherd's old Catholic church, Debbie videos the little church with the big heart’s weekly services.

This daughter of Indian immigrants, desi diasporic, queer non-binary femme traces her roots across homelands that stretch from Manhattan skylines to New Jersey suburbs and mango trees that grow in India.

Marie comes from a long lineage of storytellers and her creative writing explores the contours of immigrant family life, queer invisibility grief and resilience. Her poem, “Rearranging the Bones” was published in the book “Imanimam: Poets Writing in the Anzalduan Borderlands.”

She shares an unpublished work that she wrote about 20 years ago – “Reflections of the Glass Divide.” Although unpublished this powerful piece has been used in various settings to foster conversation helping others to realize what it is like to walk in the shoes of those often seen as “the other” by the majority culture.

Marie is the Senior Advisor for the CUNY Start program at Bronx Community College in New York. CUNY Start is an intensive program for incoming college students who have earned a high school diploma or GED but need to increase their academic proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics prior to enrollment in college credit classes.

She is passionate about expanding college access for communities of color, first-generation students, LGBTQIA+ individuals, recent immigrants, and undocumented students.