Generation W 2024 Event | April 5, 2024 at University of North Florida

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Shawana Brooks

Shawana Brooks is a creative’s creative. She is a poet, storyteller, curator and artists’ advocate. Mrs. Brooks works for the Main Public Library as the Arts and Culture Developer for the Jax Makerspace.

Her story is one of reinvention, renewal, and optimism in the face of hardship. A former manager and make-up artist for MAC Cosmetics (fourteen years), she imagined a place for herself in the arts sector and as of 2016 became a major force in advocating for artists’—specifically for minorities and women. In this capacity, she tries to shape a picture of progression and inclusion; and how that narrative builds a community of diversity and equity. She was recently awarded The Robert Arleigh White Award for Advocacy (May 2018) through the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. Brooks is the first black woman to receive that honor. She is an avid public speaker and hosts her own podcast that focuses on the work of black women creatives in Jacksonville, called Shawana’s Salon. She was selected a trailblazer for 2018 by WJAX TV and has been interviewed for several local periodicals most recently Arbus Magazine.

Since starting her role at the public library her enthusiasm and positive attitude make others want to participate in the art community. She has had success with several major art exhibitions, (KESHA: A Black Female Experience of Identity and Race {first all-black women exhibition in Northeast FL}, Survive to Thrive: Life Beyond Sexual Violence, Ties and Knots: Weaving Narratives of Northeast Florida) featuring artists in our community. She has a way of framing art as accessible … as a practical point of power while still managing to communicate the wonder and amazement of the creative process. She does this in whatever medium she has access to, including personal conversations, social media, and her work at the library. She reminds us on a daily basis, of how lucky and blessed we are, not only to be alive, but to be able to participate in the arts (at any level), and to be doing it in Jacksonville.

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