Meet Kristel Jelinek Brown | Theatre-Maker, Community-based Arts and Sexuality Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristel Jelinek Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristel, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Is there such a thing as work life balance?! (Ha! I’m kidding… sort of.) I do think the idea of work life balance is sort of a farce for modern caregivers in our society – especially women. We still have such a long way to go to support working caregivers in terms of systemic change. I’m in the very privileged position of being able to approach my work with lots of flexibility, but I also think that my creative partner, Mimi Ferrie, and I both want to be part of the paradigm shift for working-artist caregivers (and working caregivers in general.) We both come from the world of professional and commercial performance, which has historically been just as grind oriented, if not more than any other commercial/corporate environment. When we were coming up as young artists, the prevailing sentiment was that you are absolutely replaceable; it was (and still is in many ways) a work culture that chews up and spits out humans. As artists and young parents, we both found meaning and footing in arts education, but then you also have to contend with the many systemic failures in education – not the least of which rests on unpaid emotional, invisible labor (primarily done, again, by women). We were and are interested in turning both worlds, performance and education, on their heads and asking, why can’t we make this work exactly how we need it to for us? And not compromise on our values as artists and educators in the process? How can we resist urgency of grind culture and hold space to be full, messy, working artist humans? Who’s work is made richer by our fully humanity? How can we create and model community care inside of the work we are doing? In our work through Dandelion Arts Collective, Mimi and I are huge advocates for community care. Historically, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities have been doing this for centuries, knowing that collective caregiving is critical to the health and well-being of all humans living in community. We are interested in weaving community care into our creative practices and sharing resources to help build a sense of collective well-being with our participants. We want to create spaces for diverse groups of humans to explore creative expression because it is necessary to our health.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a theater-maker, community-based arts educator, “artivist”, and mama interested in working to educate and engage a variety of diverse age groups and communities through the performing arts. I am deeply committed to social justice work through community-based arts. My work centers the integration of the arts and community engagement, primarily with communities that have been historically prohibited fro participation in the performing arts. I have worked with young people and adults of various ages and abilities, in the Denver-Boulder metro area, NYC-metro area, including new citizen centers, senior centers, elementary and high schools, non-profits, and Broadway audiences. I am passionate about radical, human-centered democratization of the arts and about creating space for authentic dialogue.

I spent over a decade in commercial musical theatre doing work in regional theatre, national touring, and eventually the cruise ship/casino industries. I always knew I would eventually transition into arts education. I’d gotten a taste of it in a college internship and discovered it to be my true passion. After eight plus years as a working actor, I enrolled in a full-time master’s program in Applied Theatre at the City University of New York, a program which uses theatre “as a medium for education, community-building, and the pursuit of social justice.” The program was co-lead by artists and educators, Chris Vine, and Helen White and it was a life-changing experience; it forced me to reckon with and do deep work on my identity, my values, and my art-making. Sometimes that work was uncomfortable, but that discomfort was necessary. Chris would often say, “Art should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” My time at CUNY gave me a better understanding of how incredibly radical and transformative art can be towards creating a more just, equitable, and beautiful world. (Incidentally, I gave birth to my first child in the midst of writing my graduate thesis, so it was a profound time in my life in many ways.) We relocated back to Colorado in 2012, I gave birth to our second child, and began working primarily as a teaching artist in the Denver-Boulder area. I often felt frustrated at the derth of arts education employment opportunities as compared to NYC, but eventually carved a niche for myself as a teaching artist and director. However, I continued to pine for arts work more rooted in social justice. Enter: Mimi Ferrie. We had gotten to know each other through the dance community and she taught both my children; our connection and shared values were clear from the beginning. We began to collaborate together on youth musical theatre and other teaching artists projects. Then in 2021, she let me know she was planning on creating work based dance as a public health initiative and I immediately wanted in. I had been considering enrolling in a certification program for holistic sexuality education and eventually starting an arts organization centered on inclusive, holistic sex education through performing arts methods. I started my program, my collaborations with Mimi expanded and one day last spring (2023) over coffee, she said “we just need to quite messing around and start our own non-profit.” And Dandelion Arts Collective was born, a nonprofit arts-in-public health organization dedicated to promoting and advancing public health and health equity through performing arts practices. We are in the early stages of building the collective as a nonprofit, but my spirit feels more aligned with our work than anything I’ve ever done. It’s really exciting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am a city person at heart and get super jazzed about city things. love Meow Wolf! It’s visceral, colorful, and overwhelming in all the best ways! It’s a must-see for visitors. I also love classic Denver institutions like the Botanic Gardens, the Zoo, and DMNS. I enjoy bopping around Denver and Boulder and showing people yummy places to eat. Some of my favorites include: Mercantile, Linger, Cafe Brazil, Frasca, and Acreage. I love Curious Theatre Company Cleo Parker Robinson, Wild Heart Dance Company, New Breed Dance and everything at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder. It’s nice to balance a visit out with some mountain-nature things too, like the Chautauqua area and the Sanitas trail in Boulder. I grew up in Colorado with father who was on the National Ski Patrol, so I love skiing and now share that with my family. We also have a funky old family cabin in the Sangre de Cristo area, which is stunning and less busy than the Front Range, with lots of gorgeous Swiss Alps-esque hikes in the vicinity.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’m grateful to the work of thinkers, culture-makers, advocates, and educators like Adrienne Maree Brown, Rachel Cargle, Michael Rohd, Paulo Freire, and Augusto Boal, who’s pedagogies at the global level have inspired and infused my own creative practice. At the more local level, I am humbled to continue to learn and grow with and from thinkers and artists like, Chris Vine, Helen White, Lauren Beale, Brooke MacNamara, Gene Roberts, Travis LaBerge, and of course, my collaborative soul sister, Mimi Ferrie.

Website: www.dandelionartscollective.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dandelionartscollective/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristel-jelinek-brown-80470b57/

Image Credits
Headshots by Alex Guardia