Brittany Williams

Brittany Williams is a fourth year, final semester Division III student and member of the James Baldwin Scholars Program at Hampshire College. As of Fall 2011, Brittany is the Student Life Representatives to the Board of Trustees at Hampshire. Brittany has been selected as a 2012 Teach For America Corps Member and City Year Corps Member; similarly, she has been accepted into Columbia University's Teachers College, though she has yet to decide on her post-undergraduate career path. She has written this entire Hampedia page in third person about herself.

= ABOUT ME =

Brittany M. Williams was born May 20th in Atlanta, GA. She lived in Atlanta for the entirety of her life up until college. She attended Therrell High School in South West in Atlanta, where she was a superior student in the Law and Government Magnet Program. While at Therrell, Brittany was actively involved in Academic Decathlon, Student Government, Marching and Concert Band, as well as many mentorship programs to help neighboring youth. One activity Brittany remained involved in both in middle school and while attending Therrell was Debate. Brittany has won numerous awards and recognition for her debating skills including her 2nd place rank in the State of Georgia's Public Forum Debate. As a young woman committed to bridging the gap within the African American community, Brittany set out on a quest to attend college in a "foreign" place to help develop herself socially. She chose to invest her undergraduate career at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts a college she found through an academic program, The 21st Century Atlanta Scholars, in Atlanta, GA. Although a first generation High School graduate, Brittany is committed to breaking down social, economic, and gender disparities within America. Brittany is very young in age but possesses talent, courage, and determination that many adults twice her age lack. Thusly, she is vigorously involved within the Hampshire College Community from where she plans to attain her undergraduate degree, with a focus on law, African American studies, and media studies. Brittany is committed to her involvement in the Hip-Hop community through music, appearance, and spoken word and plans to use Hip-Hop as a way to educate youth through entertainment. Brittany is achieving this goal through her work with TRGGR radio based out of Western Massachusetts where she is a producer [1]. '''Brittany has interned for The Coca-Cola Company, The Fulton County Justice Department, Atlanta Public Schools, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. '''

You can find her mentioned/ pictured in the following articles online: The Atlanta Journal Constitution (Newspaper), Atlanta Public Schools Site (2008), The Atlanta Daily World, TalkUpAPS, State of The Schools 2010, Atlanta Public Schools- 2010, and Afro (Baltimore, MD). (These are all she has found to date.)

= HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE =

Public Speaking and Discussion Facilitation :

“My HC Experience,” Hampshire College’s Annual Trustee Dinner, 2010 "Meaning What You Say and Saying What You Mean: A discussion on 'hate' and race," 2010 Atlanta Public Schools “Superintendent’s State of The Schools,” Introduction, 2010 Tackling First Gen,” James Baldwin Scholars Brunch, 2009

Recognition :


 * Big Brothers Big Sisters Hampshire County- Lead Fundrasier
 * Hampshire College Ingenuity Award- Recipient
 * Hampshire College RRASC Summer Internship Award- Recipient
 * HC Trustee Dinner- Selected Speaker
 * James Baldwin Scholars Annual Brunch- Selected Host
 * James Baldwin Scholars Annual Brunch- Selected Speaker
 * David Smith Scholar in American Studies

Large-Scale Event Involvement

Spring 2012


 * Spring "All House"

Fall 2011


 * Hampshire Halloween- Organizer, Planner
 * Fall "All House" (Res-Life)

Spring 2011


 * Spring "All House" -Reslife Lead Planner
 * Hampshire College 2k11 Spring Jam

Fall 2010


 * Hampshire Halloween- Organizer, Planner
 * Fall "All House"- Reslife Organizer/Planner

Spring 2010


 * Umoja Fashion Show- Modeling Director (April 30)
 * TRGGRING CHANGE 2- Conference Organizer/Planner (April 24)
 * Hampshire College Spring Jam- Organizer (April 17)

Extra-Curriculars


 * Student Life Committee Representative to the Board of Trustees
 * Habitat For Humanity Volunteer 2011- Current
 * Housing Operations- Dakin "D" Intern 2010- Current
 * The Peer Mentorship Program (SOURCE Mentoring) 2008-2010
 * Committee On Community Activities (COCA)- Member 2008- Current
 * James Baldwin Scholars Program- Signer 2009- Current
 * TRGGR Radio- Producer 2009-2010
 * The Urban Word- Member 2010- 2011
 * SISTERS- Member 2008- Current
 * UMOJA- Member 2008- Current
 * B.A.A.B- Member 2009-2010
 * SOURCE/Iinternational Student Representative- Elected Representative 2009-2010

Course Work

Spring 2012


 * Turning Tables: Justice for All, Just Not for Us (Div III): "Turning Tables investigates the intersection between the historical oral tradition found in African American culture and its contemporary manifestations within hip-hop as it applies to conceptions of justice. This work takes a multi-layered approach to illuminating narratives of resistance, subversion, and critique as produced within mainstream Rap music and larger Hip Hop culture. A foundational examination of the traditions of artistic and linguistic traditions of resistance is followed by a consideration of contemporary Hip Hop lyricism in response to issues of legal, political, and economic injustice. Moreover, the study examines ways in which Rap artists challenge, complicate, and command intra-communal justice along the lines of gender and sexuality. Consequently, this analysis of intersectionality considers Hip Hop as a space for a discourse around justice that extends beyond race. Ultimately, in looking at Hip Hop's engagement of issues of (in)justice, this work positions the cultural form as a space where new avenues toward freedom may be theorized, and new possibilities for a "just" society might be imagined."
 * Voice &amp; Visibility: African Americans and the Power of Spoken Word (Teaching Assistant)

Fall 2011


 * "Turning Tables: Justice for All, Just Not for Us" (Division III work in progress)
 * Renaissance, Resistance, and Revolution: 20th Century African American Literature (Teaching Assistant)

Spring 2011


 * Hybrid Identities
 * Framing Blackness
 * Indigenous People and The Law (Mount Holyoke College)
 * Voice &amp; Visibility: African Americans and the Power of Spoken Word (Teaching Assistant)

Fall 2010


 * Organizing in the Whirlwind: African-American Social Movements in the Twentieth Century
 * Feminism, Race and Resistance: History of Black Women in America (Smith College)
 * Contemporary Topics in Afro-American Studies: Race and Class in Conflict: The Rise of the Black Middle Class (Smith College)

Spring 2010


 * Topics in Black Studies: Race, Place, and Identity (Smith College)
 * American Constitutional Law (Smith College)
 * Cultural Difference (Amherst College)
 * African Americans and Reparations
 * Border Matters

January 2010


 * Voice and Visibility

Fall 2009


 * Social Organization of Law (Amherst College)
 * Race, Place, and The Law (Amherst College)
 * Media/Irony/Cultural Politics
 * Warfare in the Amer Homeland

Spring 2009


 * Journalism in Crisis
 * World Music-Global Pop
 * Sample! Remix! Mash!
 * Writing the Urban Experience

January 2009


 * Analysis of Hip-Hop Culture

Fall 2008


 * Read, Writing, Blogging Dance
 * Intro to Writing
 * Sex, Death, and Teeth

''[1] TRGGR MEDIA GROUP IS A MEETING GROUND OF GRASSROOTS HIP HOP CULTURE, MUSIC AND POLITICS. INSTEAD OF ITS COMMON ASSOCIATION WITH GUNS AND VIOLENCE, WE USE THE TERM TO CONNOTE THE SPARKING OF IDEAS, THE TRGGRING OF NEW WAYS OF THOUGHT, NEW WAYS OF BEING, DIFFERENT AND COURAGEOUS WAYS OF SEEING OURSELVES AND OUR ROLE IN SOCIETY AND IN THE WORLD.''