I am global citizen with a lifelong curiosity about people and places. Born in the UK of Jamaican parents, I had clocked over 10,000 travel miles before I was five. Born to learn, teach and write.
On Turning 61: Aging, Health & Vitality As An Older Black Woman
Monica's spent the last twenty years fearing she wouldn't make it to 61. But she decided to face her fears head on.
The article explores the Science of aging in women and features interviews with Doctors and reports the lived experience of older women and their advice to younger women.
Monica Brown adds her own advice which includes wearing red shoes!
Thabisa Mjo is a designer extraordinaire with an old soul and innovative new ways to mash tech, aesthetic and tradition
“I feel more like a storyteller than a designer. But I use design to tell that story.”
Thabisa Mjo is an award winning designer from South Africa whose pendant “Tutu” lamps can be found in Nando’s restaurants across South Africa. Most recently, her work is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Unfortunately, opening dates are uncertain due to France’s COVID-19 shut down, but ARK Republic journalist Monica D.Brown interviewed this remarkable designer during the first lock down in 2020 to le...
African American artist-advocate, Rhinold Ponder journeys to Tanzania to learn how to sculpt from a trailblazing artist cutting through a male-dominated industry | The Light Series
When Monica D. Brown, ARK writer, introduced Rhinold Ponder — Chicago born attorney, advocate and fine artist — to leading Tanzanian sculptor, Mwandale ‘Big Mama’ Mwyanyekwa, the result was a unique African American encounter in Kigamboni, Tanzania.
In an interview with ARK founder, Asteria Malinzi, along with Rhinold Ponder and Mwandale Mwyanyekwa, we explored this African American artistic collaboration.
GENESIS OF THE ARK
ARK, Artists Residency of KIGAMBONI July 1-31, 2019.
The ARK, artist...
Keep the faith issue 94
Monica D. Brown shares her Journey back to Zanzibar and Tanzania in 2009. The family odyssey inspired the title of Monica' s illustrated anthology, ' Journey back to Zanzibar',published on June 25, 2014.
In December 2016, 7 family members, representing three generations of Monica's family travelled to Tanzania to celebrate mother Iciline's 80th birthday and to launch the Swahili translation of the book, ' Safari Kuelekea Tena Unguja'.
Tracing your roots.
This episode of ' Tracing your roots' focused on people of African Caribbean heritage. Monica D. Brown produced original content based on her own search for her roots and shared this with the BBC Radio 4 audience. The BBC invited experts in genealogy research and Anthropology to participate in the programme.
S.E.E Africa Magazine: Nigeria Edition
The article profiles Tanzania's leading female sculptor , Mwandale Mwanyekwa . The interview traces her Kilimanjaro steep climb as a Makonde artist, born to sculpt.
S.E.E Africa Magazine: Uganda Edition
The second edition of S.E.E. AFRICA® the flagship magazine publication of Afro Tourism is finally out – and it’s loaded! Picking up from whe...
Rural Ethiopian school washed away every year finds permanent home in the resilience of a community
This two-part story tells how an Ethiopian farming community powered through the challenges of building a permanent school structure that withstood, heavy yearly rains.
Awash Kolati is hard to find on the map of Ethiopia. A remote village located in the central Oromia region, it is also one of many rural settlements in which the only school is destroyed by annual rainfall.
There are many factors explaining the cyclical misery in Ethiopia: heavy rains, inadequate resources, poor quality constr...
Iciline Brown: Windrush Generation Story | Film Doc
A family of siblings document the journey of fighting for their immigrant mother, Iciline Brown, to gain reentry into the UK, in which she used to reside as a legal resident.
The documentary shows how a family advocates for their mother within a growing xenophobic UK immersed in a Brexit climate that works to oust people of color, members of the African diaspora, and those who worked to restore the British Empire after it suffered significant damage from world wars.
The documentary continues ...
Britain’s Windrush Generation scandal: Predictions, reflections and solutions
After living and working in the UK for over fifty years, the Windrush Generation continues to fight against Britain’s deportation efforts.
“Don’t forget where you come from. They want you to go to work in their country and when they’re finished with you they will send you back.”
Phillip Brown (1896-1987)
Phillip Brown’s first-hand experiences of injustice and racism as a voluntary migrant worker in Panama during the early 1900s, gave him a crucial perspective. In the above quote in 1962, he s...