Staff Highlights: Em Matson-Brady

Describe yourself in one sentence.

I’m a Two Spirit Ojibwe writer and relative who loves to laugh and make others laugh.

What is one thing in your professional history that you are proud of?

I’m really proud about the variety of storytelling I have been able to do. Along with the storytelling I get to do at NACDI and other communications work, I’ve been able to write in really cool genres like poetry, comics, and TTRPGs (tabletop roleplaying games) both as a hobby and professionally.

What is something you are working on outside of NACDI that you are excited about?

I’m on the board of an organization called Niizhiwag Odenang, working with other Two Spirit folks to create safe and welcoming ceremony space for Two Spirits in the Great Lakes region. This work makes me really proud because it is generational work. We are looking decades out in our planning, and there is cool movement being done spiritually to reclaim a lot of the Two Spirit ceremonies that have been intentionally destroyed.

What would you like your legacy to be?

I work really hard to make spaces that folks feels welcome and excited to be a part of. Anything that reflects that work would be a life well lived.

Which talent would you most like to have?

I’d love to be a polyglot or someone who knows a bunch of languages. I’m working to make this sort of a reality, but to be naturally gifted with languages or just know them already would be awesome.

If you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room, what would you choose and why?

Everyone told me how hard this question was, and now I understand! I think I will have to go with “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross. It would be a great energy to enter every room in, especially with that build up at the beginning. I can’t help but smile and sing when it plays.