HOUSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas announced today Austin-based author KB Brookins and Houston-based painter Vincent Valdez as its artists-in-residence for 2025-2026.
The artists were selected through a statewide open call conducted earlier this year with nearly 200 applicants. Each artist will receive $30,000 to work alongside the organization and community leaders to advocate for Texans’ civil rights and individual liberties, with a particular focus on immigrants’ rights, LGBTQIA+ equality, and criminal law reform.
“KB Brookins and Vincent Valdez challenge us to experience the world in a different way,” said Oni K. Blair (she/her), executive director of the ACLU of Texas. “Their work reminds us of our shared humanity and the urgent need to protect the rights of all Texans, no exceptions. I’m thrilled they’ll be collaborating with us to highlight the diverse and sometimes contrasting realities that coexist within our state. At the ACLU of Texas, we believe the arts can reach beyond age, language, and culture to speak truth to power — and imagine a new way forward.”
Brookins will use original composition, workshop facilitation, community curation, and public presentation to address pretrial detention in Texas jails, with a particular focus on Harris County. Their work will draw attention to the human impact of mass incarceration in Texas, where two in three people are locked up before ever having their day in court — simply because they can’t afford bail.
“I’m so excited and grateful to be an artist-in-residence with the ACLU of Texas!” said KB Brookins (they/them), incoming artist-in-residence at the ACLU of Texas. “My project will include writing workshops, op-ed curation, and art events on pretrial detention in Harris County jails. This work is so important to me. I hope to do my part in creating a world beyond carceral punishment.”
Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans poet, author, and educator. They grew up in Fort Worth, graduated from Texas Christian University, and now live and work in Austin. From 2022-25, Brookins founded Austin’s poet laureate program. Their debut memoir “Pretty” (2024) won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Dorothy Allison/Felice Picano Emerging Writer Award. Brookins’ poetry chapbook “How To Identify Yourself with a Wound” (2022) won the Saguaro Poetry Prize, a Writer’s League of Texas Discovery Prize, and a Stonewall Honor Book Award. Their poetry collection “Freedom House” (2023) won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the Best First Book of Poetry.
Valdez will portray local community leaders who are working to inform and challenge the American system for a better tomorrow. He will then combine these portraits with Know Your Rights information and archival research to produce poster packets to be distributed across the state — highlighting the power that Texans have to create a more just and inclusive future.
“I’m eager to begin this collaborative partnership with the ACLU of Texas. This opportunity enables me to continue to create images as instruments, to incite public remembrance and to defy social amnesia,” said Vincent Valdez (he/him), incoming artist-in-residence at the ACLU of Texas. “My project, ‘The New Americans,’ will serve as a reminder: to fight the good fight, like a stubborn pulse in a dying heart.”
Valdez was born in San Antonio and now lives between Houston and Los Angeles. He creates large-scale, representational paintings that confront injustice and inequity while instilling subjects with empathy and humanity. He is a recipient of the Ford and Mellon Foundations Latinx Artist Fellowship (2022) and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2016). Exhibitions and collections include: The Ford Foundation, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and The National Portrait Gallery, among others.
Valdez and Brookins succeed outgoing artist-in-residence, Kill Joy, who worked with Kitchen Table Puppets & Press to lead a statewide immigrants’ rights tour with giant 12-15-foot puppets that educated more than 1,000 attendees about their constitutional rights amid escalating anti-immigrant policies. Mathieu Jn Baptiste helped pilot the artist-in-residence program from 2022-2023 by painting murals to empower historically disenfranchised voters to fully participate in the democratic process.
The ACLU of Texas’ artist-in-residence program provides Texas artists working in any medium with funding and institutional support to lead an arts-based campaign that advances the organization’s strategic advocacy goals in one or more of its issue areas.
“I’ve been judging speeches, performances, and poems for 25 years and this was the most competitive set of materials I’ve ever had to look over,” said Eddie Vega (he/him), San Antonio Poet Laureate and panelist for the artist-in-residence program.
Access headshots and multimedia of KB Brookins and Vincent Valdez here: https://aclutx.dash.app/sharing/type/collection/nfgbk-artists-in-residence-2025
Access multimedia of past artists-in-residents here: https://aclutx.dash.app/sharing/type/collection/yzasw-artists-in-residence-works
