Excerpt from Westword written by Kyle Harris (see full story here):
Denver's arts and music scene is rich with talented, busy people working to make this city a better place. They bring creativity, a strong sense of social justice, intelligence and a desire to serve the community to everything they do.
Here are nine of the people we plan to watch in Denver art and music in 2021.
Stephen Brackett is proudly “not cool.” At least that’s what he says — though we beg to disagree, because he manages to get an unbelievable amount of cool stuff done for Colorado. Brackett is in constant motion, and where he walks, we’d all be wise to follow.
A graduate of East High School, he gained fame early as part of Flobots, the indie-hip-hop act that had a hit with “Handlebars” and, rather than chase national attention, focused instead on community and getting to work on the activist causes that the act’s members care about much more than clout. Together they launched a nonprofit that eventually became Youth on Record, Colorado’s leading music-education nonprofit.
Unburdened by the need to prove himself and fully willing to embrace the weird, the Flobots MC has spent years fighting for his community: fueling radical movements with love and optimism, building youth programs, championing racial justice. He’s boned up on social movement theory, religious history and cultural studies, and has put that knowledge to work as both an organizer and a musician.
After years of serving on the board of Youth on Record, in 2020 Brackett joined the staff as director of special programs, and in March he was appointed by Governor Jared Polis as Colorado’s second music ambassador. Through this role — and in collaboration with Colorado Creative Industries, the state arts agency, and Take Note Colorado, the nonprofit founded by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2017 with the aim of getting a musical instrument into the hands of every K-12 student in Colorado — Brackett has expanded Youth on Record’s music-education efforts across Colorado. The project will employ working musicians, bridging the too-often-split urban-rural divide and using music to spark critical conversations.
That would be enough. But there’s more.
Brackett is also working with Youth on Record to create its own talent agency, one that will include ongoing education, management and industry opportunities for former students who have graduated from the nonprofit and are trying to make it in an industry that too often siphons intellectual-property rights from artists and exploits them. His hope is that the project can create a better model and a better way forward for emerging musicians.
And that would be enough. But there’s more.
Brackett’s also planning to work with arts organizations throughout Denver to bring performances and cultural opportunities to town. If this idea comes to fruition, theater and music groups will perform short pieces on top of flatbed trucks that travel through neighborhoods and create surprising cultural exchanges — demonstrating that no matter how socially distant we have to be, the arts will be there through it all. The effort follows a project launched in 2020 by the Athena Project and K Contemporary under the #ArtFindsUs banner, and will only grow from there.
And that would be enough. But there’s more.
Brackett has also been busy working on a national campaign for truth, reconciliation and reparations, the sort of process that has helped Rwanda and South Africa heal from racial and cultural violence. The project is being led by women of color from around the country, including leaders in the Movement for Black Lives, the Landback movement and other seasoned organizers who use polling data and high-level campaigns to create change.
“If we’re talking truth and reconciliation, that doesn’t mean some people,” Brackett explains. “We are figuring out how to message and reach those folks who are hostilely against us.”
The work was going on long before the racial-justice protests of summer 2020 and will continue long after. As Brackett sees it, the movement will create a new vision of the American Dream that isn’t just reserved for cis-gender white men.
Brackett has the spirit, intelligence, resilience and longstanding commitment to community to push this movement forward. As with all of his projects, he’s motivated by a radical spirit of love, inclusion and collaboration — even between people who have long viewed each other as enemies.
Says Brackett: “Truth and reconciliation is one of the best ways to address the long-festering wounds of any society and open the way toward a new day of liberation and healing.”