July 31, 2025
We are so saddened to announce the death of our collaborator, the writer, researcher, and advocate Brandi Collins-Dexter. In our time working together on a new podcast, Brandi inspired us with her deep commitment to media justice, sharp perspective of history, and singular voice. We will miss her brilliance and her friendship dearly.
A note from Yohance Lacour:
Brandi was more than “unapologetically Black” – that term means we’ve been treated as being Black is something you have to apologize for, so she’s unapologetic – that was baseline for her. She treated Blackness as the default. She wasn’t just not apologizing, she was pushing. She believed that no justice was possible without media justice, without narrative justice. She pursued the stories that mattered, that were dear to her, and she didn’t do this for money.
Brandi had come to grips with how oppressed we are, with how horrible the world can really be, and managed to be critically thoughtful. She was able to build with that rage, and still retain her heart. She went out fighting. She was also just getting started.
She listened to podcasts, and we shared playlists and music. She had great soul, and she had beautiful taste in music. She was sweet. She was very brilliant and honest, not just in her words but her actions. She was about to walk away from a corporate gig because it was going to take a lot of money from one of these villains, and so she threatened to leave and they didn’t take the money. She wasn’t compromising on her values.
In my last conversation with her, she said: “They told me I had years, and then they told me I had months, and then they told me I had weeks, and then they told me I had days.” You look for words to say but there’s nothing to look for. I asked, what can I do? She said, “tell this fucking story.” So that’s what we did – we talked about our project. I thought we’d talk again. Her sister answered and said she couldn’t talk, but she could hear. I told her I grew up listening to Tupac, and that he said in an interview once: “I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.” What I told her is that I’m experiencing what that really means from her. I told her she moved the needle. And we’re going to keep pushing the needle.