Meet the Artist
Eric E. Brown Jr.
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 to participate in meaningful presence.
On August 25th, 2023, I got a call from a beautiful sister saying she had a ticket for me and I had 36 hours to get to Burning Man.
She said, “You going, yes or no?”
I said yes. I just completed a divorce, had two near-fatal health experiences, four funerals, and a political loss from my candidate that left me questioning who I was when the work stopped. Panic attacks had become part of my daily life.
I flew to Reno, bought gear I did not know how to use, drove into a desert I had never seen, pulled over mid panic attack gripping the steering wheel wondering if I had made a mistake, and still kept going, arriving late night, alone, without a hammer, without a plan, trying to set up a tent on hard playa ground that resisted me.
The next day my knee was swollen, my bike was broken, and the grief was still present. Then three Black strangers invited me to a comedy show and introduced me to POC Camp, and something shifted in that moment, not because anything was fixed, but because I was in a space where I did not have to hide what I was carrying.
That is what the playa gave me. It gave me a camp. It gave me a community. It gave me a circle.
This project is my response to that experience. I am building the kind of space I accidentally found when I needed it most, a place where strangers become people you can sit with, where presence does the work without requiring any explanation.
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Eric’s path has moved through community organizing, local and state politics, theology, cultural study, and hospitality.
He holds degrees from American Baptist College and Vanderbilt University, where his studies focused on Afro-Diaspora religious traditions, ethics, and the role of culture in shaping community life.
After moving to New York City, Eric began developing storytelling-centered gatherings that blend art, food, drink, music, and dialogue.
Produced under his venture, The Belly Rub, these experiences treat hospitality as a creative medium, where a room transforms into a space for reflection, a drink is an invitation to conversation, and a story becomes a bridge between strangers.
Brews 12 v UNO grows out of that same philosophy.
I arrived at Burning Man carrying a heavy grief. The playa and POC Camp became a place where the people made room for me and I felt as if I belonged.
My panic, my questioning, my losses, and my presence could exist at the same time.
That moment shifted in me a feeling that was once isolation and turned it to me being seen.
This project is my response to that experience.
Brews 12 v Uno is my way of building what I accidentally found when I needed it most.
This piece carries my grief, my struggles, my transition from Nashville to New York, and my realization that what changed me was human presence.
The playa allowed me to live again.