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Stephen Malloy Brackett
Musician and social practice artist
Stephen Malloy Brackett, also known as Brer Rabbit, is a Denver-based artist, organizer, and educator who has spent twenty years asking what music can actually do.
Known nationally as a musician and member of the Flobots, Brackett’s work extends far beyond the stage. He is a social practice artist, organizer, educator, and institution builder whose career has moved through hip-hop, youth development, public policy, community grief, and collective action.
Brackett co-founded Youth on Record in 2008, helping build a professional recording studio inside public housing and creating pathways for young people most excluded from the cultural economy. More than 30,000 young people across Colorado have come through that work. He also helped develop “Why Did We Stop Singing?” for the international activist organization Momentum and helped create Colorado’s Music Ambassador program during the pandemic, bringing live music into housing complexes and retirement facilities to keep musicians working and isolated people connected.
Brackett currently runs ONE Denver, the city’s Office of Nighttime Economy, and leads Foundation Music School in Fort Collins, delivering free music education to rural and low-income youth.
The work
Watch
Directed and produced by Anthony Grimes, with Leland Schmidt, Brandon Smith and Lawrence Dvorak.
What the award went toward
Unrestricted award
$35,000 in unrestricted support for the artist.
Project grant
$15,000 toward a socially engaged project, completed within a year.
The House Party, a platform for rebuilding the ecosystems that make politically grounded artists possible.
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