Introduction
We're Underway. I'm gratified that you, the readers, listeners and subscribers are choosing to come along with me.
I am deeply grateful for old friends and new acquaintances who have subscribed in my first few days. Four years ago, at the urging of my editors John Andelson and Mark Baechtel I began to think about my life in chapters and, after much text wrangling, we produced the story that you’ll read here in the days ahead.
I often think of the phrase “falling up” when I look back on the experiences that I recount here. As a teaching artist, I also hope that young people who read these stories will not give in to discouragement even as your present circumstances may obscure the real value of the struggle.
I’ll be starting, not with myself, but with the ones who traveled from Jim Crow Virginia to Monroe Co. Iowa in the 1890’s. My great-grandparents lived and worked alongside 5,000 others to build friendships and community in the coal mining town of Buxton, Iowa.
My Integrated Life.
From the Introduction:
Born in the Midwest at nearly the exact middle of the 20th Century, Dartanyan Brown has been front-and-center for many of American culture’s most defining struggles, particularly the Civil Rights movement and the advent of revolutions in music and technology. Where many people content themselves with one career, Brown has had at least four: in journalism, in musical performance, in the tech sector and in education. Through it all, he has continued to forge ahead with an optimism and openness to connection that he learned in a family guided by a strong maternal grandmother who grew up in an integrated Iowa town where she “didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no segregation!”
This unique foundation, along with the exceptional outlook this gave him, has enabled him to live what he refers to as “My Integrated Life.”
My name is Dartanyan Brown. I’m an African-American conceived in California and born in 1949 in Des Moines, Iowa.
I’m also a former Des Moines Register reporter, as well as a third-generation musician with deep roots in American Jazz, Folk, Rock ‘n Roll and Electronic music traditions. I’ve also been an educational technology enthusiast, though I label myself a teaching artist, having spent over 40 years creating interdisciplinary arts-centered curricula for students in public- and college preparatory environments.
That I identify as all these things and more is a testimony to the family, community and educational influences that aligned through the years on my behalf.
Reflecting on over six decades of experience, I can say that having been born in Iowa prepared me well for a fantastic journey that I like to describe as My Integrated Life.
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
Below is a list of the members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please support their work by sharing and subscribing. Paid subscribers are invited to attend real-time events and occasional Zoom calls among our writers. Your support keeps this reader-only supported service going.
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia
Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
© Dartanyan Brown 2024 all rights reserved