About the Artist

Eric E. Brown Jr. is a storyteller, cultural host, and creative entrepreneur whose work explores the power of gathering. His practice lives at the intersection of art, hospitality, memory, and conversation. Through installations, curated events, writing, and cocktails, he creates spaces where people come together not simply to attend something, but to participate in something meaningful.

Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Eric’s path has moved through community organizing, theology, cultural study, and hospitality. He holds degrees from American Baptist College and Vanderbilt University, where his studies focused on African American religious traditions, ethics, and the role of culture in shaping community life. Those interests continue to inform the work he creates today.

After moving to New York City, Eric began developing a series of storytelling-centered gatherings that blend art, food, drink, music, and dialogue. These experiences, often produced under his project The Belly Rub, treat hospitality as a creative medium. A room is a stage for reflection. A drink is an invitation to conversation. A story is a bridge between strangers.Brews 12 v Uno grows out of that same philosophy.

About The Art

Brews 12 v UNO: cLOUD OF WITnesses draws inspiration from the ancestral support through the cloud of witness, those who paved the way for us. It continues with the rituals of card playing, the symbolism of chance and fate, the traditions of Black storytelling, and the quiet power of people sitting together long enough for truth to emerge. Those who are deceased, but not forgotten and powdered drink packets are suspended like an offering within stained glass–inspired panels. They form part of the sculptural language of the work, turning everyday objects into symbols of gathering, presence, and nostalgia.

The installation is a living interpretation of Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV), a reminder that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Participants are invited to stop, sit, look up, and enter a shared space of reflection beneath that cloud, for memory, play, and community as part of the scripture unfolding in real time.

Eric’s broader work seeks to remind people that culture is not something distant or abstract. It lives in how we connect, how we listen, how we remember, and how we imagine new ways of belonging together.