Bria Brown is the membership coordinator at Community Shares of Wisconsin, but you may know her as “Unapologetically Bria Bea,” the sarcastic YouTube personality and video producer. Her videos use a mix of mix of social commentary and comedy to take on everything from how a South Carolina transplant copes with Wisconsin winters to things you should never say to a black vegan.
Rank your Top 5 MCs.
- Nicki Minaj
- Missy Elliot
- Left Eye
- Queen Latifah
- Lauryn Hill (if she shows up to the function)
Which motivates you more: doubters or supporters? Supporters. In my life “doubters” tend to be folks who are actively racist, sexist, or homophobic towards me and they don’t motivate me but they do provide me with a good chuckle. Being a person who does work online means that I am motivated when someone who has never heard of me ends up on a video of mine and is like “Oh my goodness how do I not know who you are” or “Oh my goodness more people should be watching your videos!” It inspires me to keep creating.
Why do you live in Madison? I made a move with someone who is pursuing a degree up here. I was coming to a closing point on something else in my life and figured that it was the perfect time to explore a new place in this world and to go somewhere I’d literally never been before. It’s cold but it’s pretty cool!
What three leaders in Madison under 50 have impressed you the most?
- Sabrina Madison: Her work is inspiring and I’m lucky to work with her!
- M Adams: I am inspired by M’s activism and dedication in Madison and beyond. It’s incredible to see. To dedicate your life to uplifting, resisting, and being active is incredible, to say the least.
- Geraud Blanks: I’m inspired by anything involving putting more black art on the map and in front of many faces.
What’s the biggest stumbling block in Madison to turning the corner on our racial disparities? I think a lot of people like sitting in a room and talking here. It feels good to break things down, but at the end of the day, it can be stagnant.
What are your top three priorities at this point in your life? Surviving and pursuing my dreams with a ridiculous amount of work. The hustle, y’all.
You work at community shares. How have you seen the organization have an impact of communities of color? Most recently it would be the Inspiring Voices program. Last year, we worked with 4 groups and non-profits run by people of color to support communities of color in Madison and collectively raised over $10,000 for those groups to support their work and helped them connect with even more folks in the community. It was a cool thing to see and to be a part of.
Nicki Minaj or Rihanna? I love and support them both AND channel them in different situations to get me through life.
How did you come up with the persona Unapologetically Bria Bea? I started my channel as Bria Bea. I started it the year my great Grandma Bea turned 100. So, that was the beginning of it all! I got sick of writing long, passionate facebook statuses so instead I wanted to have a place to talk about my frustrations with the world. It was around a time where there the Black Lives Matter movement was really picking up mainstream attention and I had a lot of feelings to talk about and a lot of issues I wanted to talk about.
At some point, I realized I wanted to try my hand at comedy, which is entirely what my channel is now. I was also not being my full unapologetic self during my first 6-8 months of being on YouTube. I was shy at the beginning of this process. I added ‘Unapologetically’ to remind myself to do me to the highest degree when I was creating these videos, because that’s what I wanted to do and the messaged I needed to convey to other folks, especially black girls who are often told they’re too much and who learn from an early stage that being themselves, unapologetically, is wrong, punishable, or undesirable.
I want to entirely get rid of that idea.
From 1910-1970 historians call this period the Great migration for blacks. They left the south and moved north. The re migration of Black folks moving from the Midwest or the north to the south has grown significantly over the years. Now more blacks move into the south than move out. You being from the South Carolina why do you think black folks are moving down south in such numbers? Community. There’s just mad communities of black folks down south. It’s beautiful. I know that a lot of activist communities down south are trying to get people of color to stick around to make places down south better, rather than leaving. The thing is–people associate the south with being the most racist, but it exists everywhere in different forms. In a lot of places outside of the south that form is denial. With large black communities there’s opportunities, it’s easy to support folks of color when you can find them, etc. There are so many problems, trust and believe but it would be a mistake to think that the massive communities of color in the most southern states are not a force.
How and why did you become a vegan? I went vegan after I spent a winter vacation during college reading about veganism and the animal agriculture industry. I’m super passionate about learning about social issues and I ignored the ‘animal agriculture’ one for a long time and so when I decided to really dive in and learn about it and take action in my own way. So, once I made the decision, I went vegan the next day…on Christmas eve, actually. I’m not perfect by any means. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve bought granola bars assuming they are vegan only to be disappointed later.
Top three movies of all time? Sister Act 2. Princess Diaries. Cheetah Girls.
