The Just Brooklyn Prize, presented by The Social Justice Fund in partnership with Brooklyn Org, is awarded to five changemakers annually who are dedicated to strengthening and building power within Brooklyn’s communities. Leaders are submitted for consideration through a public nomination process and chosen by a Selection Committee of distinguished Brooklynites. The $20,000 prize is awarded without restrictions, in honor of winners’ contributions to the borough in the pursuit of racial and social justice. Our 2025 winners will be announced in the Fall.
The 2025 Just Brooklyn Prize Recipients
Shneaqua Purvis
Founder, Both Sides of the Violence
Shneaqua “Coco” Purvis, a Brooklyn native from Bedford-Stuyvesant, turned the tragic loss of her sister, Maisha “Pumpkin” Hubbard, into a lifelong mission to end gun violence. She founded Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) in 2014 and later launched Both Sides of the Violence Inc., working as a Violence Interrupter, mentor, and community leader who provides resources such as food, clothing, and foster youth support. Known for her creativity in outreach, including child-friendly mascots honoring her loved ones. Purvis speaks in schools, churches, and correctional facilities, and was recognized as a Community Hero for her advocacy. Her journey of forgiveness, including mentoring her sister’s killer, reflects her deep commitment to peace, healing, and a safer future for Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Olaronke Akinmowo
Founder, Free Black Women’s Library
Olaronke Akinmowo is a library worker, community activist, collective care facilitator, literacy advocate, and interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans collage, papermaking, printmaking, book arts, and stop-motion animation. In 2015, she launched The Free Black Women’s Library, a social art project and love letter to Black women writers, libraries, and Brooklyn communities. Rooted in Black Feminist Theory, Afro-Futurism, mutual aid, and collective care, her work creates spaces for healing, joy, learning, and creative exploration, centering the lives of marginalized people, particularly Black, POC, disabled, unhoused, and cash-poor communities. Inspired by the legacies of visionaries like Ella Baker, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and bell hooks, she uses books by Black women as a foundation for cultural empowerment and transformation, while courageously pushing past personal shyness to continue offering work that nurtures hope, critical thought, and new possibilities for a better world.
Crystal (Clarity) Bruno
Founder, Medicine Walls
Crystal Bruno is a third-generation Puerto Rican artist and activist from Brooklyn, NYC, dedicated to using art as cultural sustenance for BIPOC communities and as a tool for social justice. She has led countless community mural projects addressing issues such as gun violence, climate justice, and water rights, while also creating frontline artwork for major mobilizations in New York, Washington, D.C., and beyond. After serving 11 years as a lead teaching artist at a Brooklyn-based mural arts organization, she founded her own company, Medicine Walls, which hosts community art builds, workshops, and training spaces for artists and activists to create banners and messaging for protests and direct actions nationwide. Her studio also functions as a healing arts hub, offering Thai Yoga Massage and other support to activists facing burnout. Deeply committed to building sustainable and equitable futures, she continues to steward spaces for community healing, cultural expression, and transformative change.
Cathie Wright-Lewis
Founder & Executive Director, Power of the Pen
Cathie Wright-Lewis is a Brooklyn speculative fiction author whose Afrofuturistic works include Maurya’s Seed: Why Hope Lives Behind Project Walls, Passion’s Pride: Return to the Dawning, Exodus 2055, the Mama Relly children’s series, and numerous poetry anthologies and short stories. Her allegorical writing honors African ancestors, New York City’s Black revolutionaries, and centuries of resilience, while also embedding essential language skills to support urban students in mastering reading and writing. A lifelong educator, Wright-Lewis has spent over 35 years teaching, mentoring, and training Brooklyn youth, adults, and teachers as a high school English teacher, UFT trainer, and adjunct professor. She has also served as program director for Medgar Evers College’s Center for Black Literature and currently leads her nonprofit, Power in the Pen Writing Workshop Inc., fostering literacy, empowerment, and community transformation.
Derrick Nkosi Cain
Founder, Touchdown NYC
Derrick Nkosi Cain is a dedicated leader, advocate, and mentor with over 15 years of experience in organizational leadership, restorative justice, and community empowerment. He currently serves as Director of Re-Entry for The God Squad, leading initiatives to support individuals transitioning from incarceration by providing mentorship, resources, and advocacy. Previously, he directed the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund—one of the nation’s largest bail funds—and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and co-founded Touchdown NYC, a digital platform for formerly incarcerated individuals. Now also serving as a Senior Community Advisor, he continues to advance innovative solutions that uplift marginalized communities. Rooted in radical candor and collaboration, his leadership emphasizes mentorship, storytelling, and systemic change, with a vision of building bridges and creating a more just and equitable world.
Selection Committee:
Sharon Daughtry, Executive Director, Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance
Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson, President, Auburn Theological Seminary
C. Zawadi Morris, 2023 Just Brooklyn Prize Winner, Founder and Publisher, BK Reader
Randy Peers, President and CEO, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
Antonio Reynoso, Brooklyn Borough President
Maya Wiley, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Angela Yee, Host, Way Up With Angela Yee
Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director, Asian American Federation