Local spoken-word artist Frank Brady will perform in Washington, D.C., Thursday at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. Brady will perform a 2009 poem titled Progress is Personal, a work, he said, that plays off W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of “double consciousness.”
Brady will perform as part of a forum titled Anatomy of a Revolution: From Alabama to Egypt, which will include panelists Aisha Moodie-Mills, an adviser on LGBT policy and racial justice at the Center for American Progress; Raphael Cassimere, Jr., professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans; Stefanie Louise Brown, national director of the NAACP’s Youth & College division; TMS “Teddy” Ruge, social media strategist at The World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative; and Charlene Carruthers, the Women’s Media Center’s manager of special initiatives.
The opportunity to appear in Washington, D.C., this week resulted from Brady reaching out to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in an e‑mail that included a link to a YouTube clip of of him performing Progress is Personal at a poetry slam event in Bridgeport. Brady also performed the poem in February 2010 at Yale University’s 15th Annual Black Solidarity Conference, whose theme was “Progress is Personal: Erasing Complacency, Embracing Our Purpose.”
Frank Brady
Brady received an invitation to perform at the Annual Legislative Conference from Congressional Black Caucus Foundation President and CEO Elsie Scott, Ph. D. Scott’s letter described the Anatomy of a Revolution panel discussion as “an official Emerging Leaders Series Issue Forum that targets college students and early career professionals. … Anatomy of a Revolution will provide emerging leaders with an opportunity to hear from experts about the role young people have played in organizing, executing, and sustaining global change.”
Brady, who teaches creative writing and performance in New Haven’s Achievement First schools and has appeared with such notable artists as Lupe Fiasco, KRS One, and Melanie Fiona, is interested in bridging the gap between between education and entertainment. In July, Brady performed in Hartford at the World Youth Peace Summit, whose keynote speaker was former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell.
Brady said he became familiar with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation when members of Driven2Inspire — a New Haven-based consulting group of which he’s a founding member — attended the organization’s Annual Legislative Conference last year.
What appeals to him about the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Brady said, is that it “pushes progression,” especially among developing, young leaders.
“Progression,” he said, is fostered not only through legislative action, but through grassroots efforts.
“For me,” Brady said, “progression is progress,” something that was marked, for example, by the election of the United States’ first black president.
Further progress, Brady said, is something many people — especially those in the black community — are looking to President Obama to foster.
Brady said he’s honored to be performing Thursday before a panel of such “distinguished professionals.”