Keynote and Plenary Speakers
Internationally Renowned Attorney and Civil Rights Leader
Bryan Stevenson
Keynote Speaker
Creative Placemaking Communities and The King’s Canvas are thrilled to announce that Bryan Stevenson, the Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative will be the opening Keynote at THE POWER OF COMMUNITY - South and Appalachian Creative Placemaking Conference, Montgomery 2025.
Bryan Stevenson led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.
He has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.
Mr. Stevenson’s work has won him numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Prize; the ABA Medal, the American Bar Association’s highest honor; the National Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union after he was nominated by United States Supreme Court Justice John Stevens; the Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers; and the Olaf Palme Prize in Stockholm, Sweden for international human rights. Mr. Stevenson won the Gruber Foundation International Justice Prize and was awarded the NAACP William Robert Ming Advocacy Award, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award and the Roosevelt Institute Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom from Fear Award.
Mr. Stevenson was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2014 and won the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. In 2015, he was named to the Time 100 recognizing the world’s most influential people. In 2016, he received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award. He was named in Fortune’s 2016 and 2017 World’s Greatest Leaders list. He received the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, from the King Center in Atlanta in 2018. In 2020, he received the Right Livelihood Award from The Right Livelihood Foundation in Sweden. In 2023, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden.
He has received over 50 honorary doctoral degrees, including degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oxford University. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 Best Books of Nonfiction for 2014 and has been awarded several honors, including the American Library Association’s Carnegie Medal for best nonfiction book of 2015 and a 2015 NAACP Image Award. Just Mercy was adapted as a major motion picture and the film won the American Bar Association’s 2020 Silver Gavel Award as well as four NAACP Image Awards.
Mr. Stevenson is also the subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary True Justice. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government.
Montgomery-Based Artist and Founder
Michelle Browder
Closing Plenary Speaker
Creative Placemaking Communities and The King’s Canvas are thrilled to announce that Michelle Browder, Montgomery artist and the Founder and Director of the I AM MORE THAN... Youth Empowerment Initiative will be the closing Plenary at THE POWER OF COMMUNITY - South and Appalachian Creative Placemaking Conference, Montgomery 2025.
Michelle hails from Denver, Colorado, but at the age of 7, her family relocated to the rural town of Verbena, Alabama in the late 1970s. There, Michelle faced the harsh realities of bullying fueled by racial prejudice from a young age. Known for her fierce spirit, she confronted her aggressors through physical altercations, which ultimately led to several suspensions from school. During one of these suspensions, her father presented her with a critical choice: “Prison or Art.” He urged her to channel her energy into creativity.
At just 13, Michelle tapped into her entrepreneurial instincts by launching a hand-painted T-shirt business. After completing high school, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she pursued her passion for design at the Art Institute of Atlanta, focusing on Graphic Design and Visual Communications. For nearly 35 years, Michelle has dedicated herself to mentoring marginalized and underserved students using the power of art, history, and candid discussions. She has developed and branded art diversion programs implemented in juvenile detention centers in both Atlanta and Montgomery, Alabama. Her artwork has been showcased in galleries nationwide, including the prestigious Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery.
Currently, Michelle serves as the founder and director of the I AM MORE THAN... Youth Empowerment Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. and she is the artist and creator of Mothers of Gynecology Monument in Montgomery, Alabama. She also leads More Than Tours and The More Uo Campus a social enterprise that offers educational tours to nearly 10,000 underserved students in marginalized communities. Michelle’s mission is clear: “Changing maternal health care narratives exposing systemic racism using art, history and courageous conversations.”