Brooks Emanuel is an Atlanta native who recently completed the Duke MFA program in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis. Brooks’ MFA research focused on investigating how dance can serve racial justice work. He has also been a member of the artist-activist organization Alternate ROOTS since 2005.

After dancing and choreographing for a decade in New York and Atlanta, he shifted to progressive political and policy work, lobbying at the Georgia legislature on behalf of a coalition of 50 progressive nonprofits and working in numerous capacities on multiple political campaigns in Georgia and Massachusetts. This work culminated in his serving as Director of Legislative Services for the Georgia House Democratic Caucus under Leader Stacey Abrams.

He then attended NYU School of Law, where he interned with NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, ACLU Capital Punishment Project, and NYCLU. Upon obtaining his J.D., he worked at Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, representing people on death row, people sentenced to life without parole, and those suffering horrific prison conditions, as well as researching and writing reports on the history of racial injustice in the United States. This research also contributed to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors the more than 4,400 African American men, women, and children lynched between 1877 and 1950, and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.

After leaving EJI, Brooks served as Public Policy Director for Planned Parenthood Southeast; ran the Voter Protection Hotline for the 2018 Georgia Democratic Coordinated Campaign that supported Stacey Abrams’s first run for governor; and advocated against mass incarceration as a Senior Analyst and Legal Counsel at The Justice Collaborative/The Appeal.

“Be gentle friend, for everyone you know is fighting a personal battle.”
―Author Unknown