From healing through music and art-making to dreams of a community space and gallery, this entrepreneur has big business plans.
Wednesday July 20, 2022 | Arts & Cultural Affairs
Briauna Williams with her expressive paintings.
Briauna William’s free creative HeART and Music workshops focus on healing for youth and adults through storytelling, fellowship and creativity in her North Minneapolis neighborhood.
In celebration of the second annual Black Business Week (July 25-July 31), sponsored by the City of Minneapolis, the Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs spotlights Briauna Williams, a 2022 Creative Response Fund recipient. Williams, an inspiring entrepreneur shares her insights on the intersection between music, art, and business.
In June of 2022 the City of Minneapolis’ Arts & Cultural Affairs announced funding through the Creative Response Fund for 12 artist-led teams for projects providing creative healing and support to Minneapolis communities that continue to be directly impacted and affected by the stress and trauma of 2020.
One of these projects, HeART and Music led by artists Briauna Williams and Khalif Alogba will present free community collaborative workshops of healing through music and art making. The workshops will be designed for youth and adults on the Northside and will explore storytelling, fellowship, and creativity offering participants new tools to help cope with grief, stress, and trauma.
Rajine Williams, an independent writer, interviewed Briauna Williams about her creative business and plans for HeART and Music working in the neighborhood where she grew up, This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Briauna Williams is multitalented. As a self-taught acrylic artist, muralist, published illustrator, street artist, and teaching artist, there are no bounds to where her artistry can take her. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Briauna, colloquially called Brii Noir, has been immersed in art since her adolescence.
“I’ve been drawing since I was five,” Briauna recalls, “I grew up around my uncle, a well-known artist in Minneapolis. Seeing his artwork displayed in our family home was an inspiration for me, even if I didn’t know it yet. I didn’t start painting until years later in 2016. During that time I was overworked from having three jobs and still healing from the loss of my sister, Charez due to gun violence,” Briauna explains. She remembers the summer of 2016 being indoors creating a great number of paintings. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but I just knew it felt good and brought a lot of healing to my life.”
Serendipitously, Briauna met an artist preparing for ‘Art-a-Whirl’. The artist invited her to set up a booth with her paintings in their studio. “BAM! That’s where it all began—ever since then I met people at each opportunity, and it kind of rolled into another thing and I’ve just been going with it and bringing healing to other people through my work,” she beamed.
Briauna was a recipient of this year’s Creative Response Fund (CRF) grant. The CRF aims to mobilize the unique and specialized skills of artists and designers to engage with and expand the impact of healing and community support.
Briauna will be implementing two community art healing projects called HeART and Music in the community she feels most connected to— the North Minneapolis neighborhood where she grew up. “I used to live across the street from NEW RULES, I went to Lucy Laney Elementary School, where Cleveland Park is behind. The majority of where my family lives is in Minneapolis,” Briauna says, reflecting on the influence of her upbringing. “I have a lot of memories of visiting friends, family, and mom-and-pop stores, from my childhood,” she concludes.
One project will be with youth in Cleveland Park behind Lucy Laney, and the other for teenage and young adult audiences at NEW RULES, an innovative event space designed by the community for the community, specifically for youth, artists, entrepreneurs, and small business owners in North Minneapolis.
Briauna’s inspiration for this project is healing.
“I want to give someone the opportunity to create without barriers. I want to be able to provide the community, youth, and young adults with the ability to own the process towards their own healing." — Briauna Williams
The first iteration of HeART and Music begins in late August at NEW RULES. Briauna will be guiding participants in creating a visual art piece through storytelling, using acrylic paint while listening to music with the hopes of getting people up and moving their bodies to release static energy.
“I want it to be a euphony of sounds and emotions—my goal of this event is to have the environment bursting with healing and positivity.” Briauna intends to do this by enlisting the help of her friend and collaborator DJ Khalif Alogba and other creatives in her community.
With youth, she plans to hold an outdoor art session in Cleveland Park guiding them through meditation, discussion, and coloring with her hand-drawn coloring books. Her goal for this iteration is to show youth that art can be a healthy and therapeutic way to deal with any obstacle in life.
Briauna stays booked and busy. Since her debut at Art-A-Whirl, she has been commissioned for murals and sells her artwork on her website and at events. She is also a paid teaching artist contracted to teach creative lessons to youth at community centers and after-school programs.
Concurrently, Briauna works as a Community Engagement Artist with Formula around the street car project in Saint Paul. The streetcar will be connecting West 7th and the River Corridor area to the Mall of America and the Minneapolis St Paul airport. Her job is to engage the community and businesses in this area with creative ways of giving and receiving information.
With so many accomplishments under her belt, Briauna doesn’t intend to let up anytime soon.
“The next level of my practice is continuing to master my craft. Obtaining a physical space to host consistent community engagement events and have a gallery and workspace within my community.”
Learn more about Briauna Williams, visit: briinoir.com
Publisher's Note: The name, "The Office of Arts, Culture & the Creative Economy" has been updated on August 13, 2023 where it appeared within the content of this article to "Arts & Cultural Affairs" to reflect its new name as a department of the City of Minneapolis.