Brown Center for Students of Color

Guess what is coming soon? TWTP 2022! Check it out & follow Third World Transition Program at Brown University for the latest and the new theme “Beautiful Monstrosities: Crafting our own Mythologies”

Happy summer! We are prepping for TWTP with our amazing coordinators zooming in weekly from across the country and different time zones, our graduate student shirts came in and we are collaging our twtp booklets for a zine inspired look- it is a hot 🔥🔥🔥 summer with great POC centered events to come! Keep on the look out!

Two great BAM articles to check out! 1. Afro Indigenous poetry at the Hay library- https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/articles/2022-06-21/roots-reconnected

Roots, Reconnected. A book of Afro-Indigenous poetry found in the Hay Library reunites two women across generations.

Undergraduate class of 2026, get excited we have officially opened our TWTP application!

TWTP was created after protests led by Black women and students in 1968 demanded the University provide better support and resources for them. Students of color at Brown began using the term “Third World” instead of "minority" because of the negative feelings of inferiority and powerlessness with which the word "minority" is often associated. Although the term "Third World" may have negative connotations outside of Brown, Brown students of color continue to use Third World to describe a social consciousness which recognizes the similarities shared by socially and politically marginalized communities. Third Worldism reminds students of the power they have in coalescing, communicating, and uniting across their differences to create a safer and more free place for all individuals. This consciousness at Brown also reflects a right, a willingness, and a necessity for people of color and others to define themselves instead of being defined by others. To learn more, please visit https://www.browntwtp.com/about-twtp

Currently, TWTP is a pre-orientation program for incoming first-year students of color, creating an opportunity to find community, create meaningful connections before the start of the school year through workshops, community-building activities, and identity-specific confidentials that encourage students to ask honest and hard questions about life at Brown. We will cover different systems of oppression (such as Racism, Environmental Justice and Imperialism, Cisheterosexism and Sexism, Ableism, and Classism). During the program, we invite all participants to reconsider their history and aspects of their identity. We also connect students to resources on campus including the BCSC, LGBTQ+ Center, and UFLI Center in order to create a network of support that will last them through and beyond their time at Brown.

TWTP was created for first-years who self-identify as students of color and will run from Sunday, August 28th to Wednesday, August 31st, with an opportunity for a move-in on the Saturday, 27th.

The theme for this year’s TWTP is “Beautiful Monstrosities: Crafting our own Mythologies.” We want to emphasize the power of storytelling in preserving and transforming our ancestral legacies, working with the knowledge that we all have ancestors and narratives that build us. Alongside engagement with the myths, legends, and fantastic creatures from the traditions that our first-years bring, we hope to cultivate skills to build community as students of color, craft collective knowledge, and work towards futures that imagine worlds free from systems of oppression.

To apply, click here or visit bit.ly/TWTP2022. You will need to sign into your Brown Email to complete this form! Please feel free to be in touch with any questions or concerns. The TWTP participant application is a way for us to gauge potential participants’ interests and needs, so please answer to the best of your ability!

You can also click the poster to complete the application or scan the below QR code. Also visit our website browntwtp.com/ to find more information on TWTP, additional resources, including a digital copy of past years program booklets.

We cannot wait to start this journey with you all!

With warmth,

The TWTP Team

Do not fear, the BCSC greenhouse will be well taken care of by resident gardener Anne Marie! 🌱

The move has begun! These are the “before” renovation photos. “After” photos coming & newness in August 2022!

More commencement goodness! A full crowd at Latinx, Onyx, procession and student speeches! The BCSC loves you current graduates & alumni (like our own Lehidy-Laura Frias& more! 🐻❤️)

Latinx and Onyx rites of passage ceremonies prepped and ready to go! Thanks to all those who came to our open house reception last night, unity celebration and more. We love our graduates and alums! Congrats! 🎓💜🐻

Commencement activities are officially starting! 2022 Asian American, SWANA& Multiracial student stole celebration kicks off senior week for the BCSC & Onyx & Latinx celebrations close us out on Saturday. Congrats grads!!

On behalf of the entire Brown Center for Students Color (BCSC) team, we are pleased to announce an upcoming renovation to Partridge Hall, the home of the BCSC! Renovation of the first floor of Partridge Hall will start in early June 2022 with a completion goal of August 2022. As a result, the BCSC will be closed for renovations and not accessible to the greater campus community starting June 1, 2022 through August 22, 2022. (Note: Reopening dates are contingent on construction timelines)

As the legacy of the Third World Center (TWC) and the BCSC approaches our 50th Anniversary in 2026, our vision includes overall enhancements of The Center programs, support services, and student-facing spaces.

It is our hope that the first floor renovations will not only give our beloved Partridge Hall a burst of enhancements to our physical space but also increase the variety of ways our students can gather as a community. For example, the renovations will include transforming our current classroom space into a multipurpose room/informal student lounge which will allow the use of the entire floor for small physical, mental, and emotional health-related activities such as meditation or yoga; an opportunity to expand our artistic collaborations such as hosting small art shows; or for “just-for-fun” social engagements like group wellness activities and game nights on a variety of bean-bags and comfy floor cushions.

Additionally, we are excited to reimagine and finally utilize our outdoor space. For example, our rear garden and rear patio area will have enough seating for 8 - 10 students to socialize outdoors under a nice umbrella to hold interesting conversations, grab a bite to eat with friends, or help us till the soil of our new outside garden area. These are only a few of the new ways we envision utilizing our soon-to-be newly renovated first floor of Partridge Hall.

The scope of the 2022 renovation is comprised only of phase one of the first floor which will include the following areas:

Interior Renovations:
Entry and hallway
Formal Lounge
Main office/ Staff office space
Multipurpose/Classroom/Informal lounge
Kitchenette/Restrooms
Culturally relevant art
Furniture/Floors

Exterior Renovations:
Accessibility to first-floor/lift renewal
Front porch area
Front garden area
Rear garden area
Rear patio area

This Spring 2022, the BCSC Student Advisory Board (SAB) -15 student leaders representing more than 60 BCSC students- provided input regarding the above areas. SAB members were instrumental in the final renovations decisions and selections ensuring that both undergraduate and graduate student perspectives were central to finalizing each renovation detail. Once all renovations are complete, the entire BCSC Team (Anne Maire, Frank, Sage, and Lehidy) look forward to sharing our renovated first floor and exterior spaces with our current engaged students of color, supportive Brown campus community, and dedicated alumni in a Grand Re-Opening in the Fall of 2022.

These interior and exterior renovations are made possible by the generous financial support of Brown University’s Office of the President. We would also like to thank Eric Estes, Vice President for Campus Life, for his continued support of these forthcoming renewals.

Our Best,

Vincent T. Harris, Ph.D. (he, him, his, brother)
Associate Dean and Director, Brown Center for Students of Color

Loc V. Truong, Ed.D. (he/him)
Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Engagement

It is raining, it is pouring and our flowers are showing out & in full bloom in May waiting for our 2020& 2022 graduates to come and bless us in fabulous in-person commencement festivities next weekend!

Check out this fabulous exhibit "Not Never More (2022)" by Brown and RISD alum and local artist in residence Jazzmen Lee Johnson featured in News Brown University Providence, RI today https://sites.brown.edu/inheritance/exhibition/ now on display until September 10, 2022, at the Nightingale-Brown House. You don't want to miss it!

Exhibition Les Vues d’Amérique du Nord: Artists Respond (2021-2023) is an artist residency inviting two Rhode Island-based artists, Jazzmen Lee-Johnson and Deborah Spears Moorehead, to create site-specific artworks that respond to the Center for Public Humanities’ historic wallpaper, Les Vues d’Amériqu...

All 5 of the Brown 2020 and 2022 student speakers are students of color! You better listen and clap extra loud at the extraordinary commencement this year!! https://www.brown.edu/news/2022-05-12/orators-2022 and https://www.brown.edu/news/2022-05-12/orators-2020

Senior orators to impart advice, bid farewell to Class of 2022 members during Commencement In keeping with a Brown tradition that dates back more than two and a half centuries, seniors Kaitlan Bui, Alexandra Ali Martínez and Michelle Liu will address their fellow graduates during Commencement 2022.

We have loved seeing you at the center and Heritage Series events this year! 🥳 To celebrate us hitting 1,000 followers and wind down the year, we are holding a giveaway! The winner will receive a prize full of BCSC merch! All you have to do to enter is tag a friend and let us know what your favorite BCSC event of this year was! Winner will be announced this Sunday! More information on our Instagram .

📸 Photos from CHAS conference, SWANA Cultural Night, Asian American Heritage Series Zine Night, and Black Appreciation Dinner.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdLvrp_uqyl/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

We have loved seeing you at the center and @bcscheritageseries events this year! 🥳 To celebrate us hitting 1,000 followers and wind down the year, we are holding a giveaway! The winner will receive a prize full of BCSC merch! All you have to do to enter is make sure you’re following us, tag a friend, and let us know what your favorite BCSC event of this year was! Winner will be announced Monday! 📸 Photos from CHAS conference, SWANA Cultural Night, Asian American Heritage Series Zine Night, and Black Appreciation Dinner.

So proud of our students and community! This year’s Pow Wow was phenomenal: https://www.brown.edu/news/2022-04-28/powwow

Photos: Drumming, dancing and revelry at the 19th annual Spring Thaw Powwow The student-organized event celebrated the arrival of a new season with music, dancing, food, Native American art and workmanship, games and more.

The blossoms are out in Providence, from in front of the BCSC and all around. A day (s) on College Hill (ADOCH) are here & there is excitement as accepted students gather, Seniors start to reflect, finish capstones, get job offers, accepted into graduate schools, & Spring weekend is almost here. Here are some folx from the Women/Femme of Color reception spitting 💎+🔥 & flowers showing out. We are so proud of those coming, leaving & staying 🐻 at Brown!

We were reading an article about peer support in colleges and up pops our MPC Evan D**g and their brilliance. BCSC students shine everywhere!! https://www.chronicle.com/article/colleges-turn-to-students-peers-for-mental-health-support?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_4029162_nl_Academe-Today_date_20220407&cid=at&source=&sourceid=&cid2=gen_login_refresh

Colleges Turn to Students’ Peers for Mental-Health Support Programs can be expensive and risky, but many students demand them.

Proud of lawyer-musician Dolapo Akinkube '16 and this song "Love the World" we all need more love! 💜💜💜

Love The World (Tiny Desk Submission 2021) - DAP The Contract DAP The Contract performing "Love The World" for the Tiny Desk 2021 Contest.Keys - Bryn BliskaDrums - Gengis DonBass - Josh UgiGuitar - Peter EnriquezSax - S...

We are so proud of our students! Check out their Boston Globe feature!! https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/04/04/metro/brown-university-students-launch-black-star-journal-document-black-joy-experiences/

Brown University students launch Black Star Journal to document Black joy and experiences - The Boston Globe Co-editors-in-chief Amiri Nash and Keiley Thompson want their new newspaper to become a living part of the Black experience at the school.

Happy spring from the BCSC garden! 🌷

We had a BCSC staff retreat today& made art! We can’t wait to do more art with you all soon 🖼🖌🎨🧑🏾‍🎨🐘💜

Apply to be a 2022 TWTP Team member today! Applications extended until next Friday April 1st by midnight! We want to work with you (current Brown undergraduate students only :) !!!

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These are the first crocuses emerging outside the BCSC after a long winter and even longer last two years and Pandemic. Like our amazing students of color they are blooming bravely, bright and adding more beautiful color to Brown’s campus. Please continue to nourish yourselves- we love and need you!

Our students are amazing! This piece by Jazzmin Imani is at the Granoff center’s juried student show now.

Did you know that there is a new Black student newspaper at Brown? The Black Star Journal is out with its' first issue and is filling in the gaps where the African Sun once stood and providing more news and perspectives of Black students at Brown. "We wanted to tell the world about Black dance, Black music, Black writing, and Black art...this newspaper should be a light that shines on Black people. We have so much of it to share...enjoy learning about our history, beauty, triumph, pain, and joy through the power of words, art, and visuals. This is the beauty of refusal. This is the joy of possibility."--Keiley Thompson and Amiri Nash!

Black Star Journal gala celebrates publication’s launch - The Brown Daily Herald The Black Star Journal hosted a gala in the Hazeltine Commons Sunday afternoon to celebrate the launch of its inaugural issue last Friday. The event featured reflections from the journal’s editors-in-chief, Amiri Nash ’24 and Keiley Thompson ’24, followed by performances of select works from t...

We love our fabulous students doing big things!!

Stepping Up A Narragansett dancer on life as a dual degree student, documentary star, and tribal activist

We are so excited to be hosting Cynthia Pong '04 of Embrace Change NYC for our MPC workshop today. She is an incredible alum, former MPC & inspiration for our students. We are so proud of her and her team's work and look forward to many more alumni conversations! Check out her book "Don't Stay in Your Lane" https://embracechange.nyc/book today!

I can't believe we are only 1 week from another year...! I mean, thank the universe, and at the same time, I still can't believe it's already here!⠀
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To mark the passage of time, here are my greatest hits from 2020!🎉⠀
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Not really a surprise, but my gaslighting post, with 6,356 impressions, 808 likes, 702 shares, 535 saves, and 42 comments – the closest I've ever come to "going viral" – comes in at number one!🤯😮🔥 And my admonition to not feel loyal to organizations that consider you expendable isn't far behind.⠀
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That being said, some of my faves definitely didn't make "the cut," but I'm not mad lol.⠀
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Which one of my Top 9 is your fave?🤔⠀
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Or do you have another post of mine from this past year that's impacted you the most?⠀
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Apply to be an MPC today! Get $7,500, live anywhere you like & work directly for the BCSC this year! Application deadline extended to this Friday 2/25 by midnight! Spread the word! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16IFkazVgW0Sr04MY0XwsZEKSVv7IuO8IwSP_ovdw_js/edit

Our outsides may be icy and cold but we are filled with warmth & LOVE for you & our students ❤️💕💖💓💘💝💌🥰 Happy love day to everyone! Best, the BCSC