Blanche Brown graduated from Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida. As Vice President of her high school’s Gay/Straight Alliance, Brown helped organize Stamp Out Hate, Mix Up Day, and protest discriminatory legislation. She also caught the drama bug as a Theatre Tech Assistant. Brown is pursuing a double major in English and History with a Creative Writing minor. She is currently a member of the Cellar Door Poetry staff and the technical crew for Lab! Theater at UNC. In her first year as a Bonner Leader, Brown worked with the Public History project at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center in the Northside community; editing and transcribing oral histories and assisting with outreach projects in this historically African-American community in Chapel Hill. During her second year working with the Northside community, Brown is creating an online database for these oral histories and designing a website to make them accessible to the public. In addition, she is working on the creation of a series of short, audio documentary pieces. Brown is also assisting with the planning and production of a monthly community newsletter, “The Northside News”.