Television host Karamo Brown to speak at OU

The Student Life Lecture Board at Oakland University will present “An Evening with Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown” on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Oakland Center’s Founders Ballrooms.

Currently, Brown is participating in the newest season of Dancing with the Stars on ABC television. There, he will be taking to the dance floor to compete for the coveted Mirror Ball trophy. The new season airs beginning on September 16.

Brown is also a three-time Emmy winner and culture expert on the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye. He is known for his ease and natural comfort in relating to different types of people and is tasked with making-over the hearts and minds of the individuals helped on the show.

Onstage, Brown draws from his past work as a social worker to show how he both discovered and learned to explore his many different identities. Whether as a black man, openly gay man, son of immigrant parents, a Christian, a single father or former social worker, Brown strategically uses the strengths of his numerous identities to achieve personal success and teaches others to do the same.

As part of the evening, Brown will also host a book signing. His memoir, Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing and Hope, explores how the challenges in his own life have allowed him to forever transform the lives of those in need. He also has an upcoming children’s book, I am Perfectly Designed. It is an empowering ode to modern families and is coauthored by his son, Jason.

Brown began his television career in 2004 as a housemate on the MTV hit reality series The Real World. He was the first openly-gay African-American in the history of reality television.

Brown was the recipient of the 2018 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award. He was also invited by the Obama Administration to work with the White House to create policy and legislation supporting LGBTQ youth and their allies. He has worked in support of the Obama Foundation and the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. Brown is also an active member of the Never-Again MSD gun-control movement.

Tickets will be available starting Monday, Sept. 9, at 9 a.m. at the Office for Student Involvement Service Window, Room 49, in the lower level of the Oakland Center. Tickets are free for OU students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the public. There is a maximum of two tickets per person. For more information or to request special assistance, contact the Office for Student Involvement at 248-370-2400 or [email protected].

Additional sponsors of the program are the Oakland University Credit Union and Oakland University’s Gender & Sexuality Center.