DJ CHROME
Blackkat Collective NYC
DJ bio

At age 35, Brent has lived a lifetime dedicated to realizing social change through political organizing and cultural activism.

Brent (or Arrow as he is called by friends) first became aware of Biodiesel fuel in 1995. While visiting San Francisco with his traveling theatre group, Brent meet Sarah Augusta Lewison and her fellow “veggie babes” who had just returned from the first ever cross-country bio-diesel fueled trip. Brent was immediately hooked on biodiesel and began to collect and distribute any and all information on bio-diesel he could get his hands on.

For the next 10 years, Brent has been a sort of Johnny Appleseed of bio-fuels; traveling across the United States each year introducing people to the idea of bio-diesel and straight vegetable oil through his combination of theatre, circus, and DJ presentations.
Brent introduced biodiesel to thousands of people including such biodiesel pioneers as Josh Tickell (author of “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank”) and Maria Alovert (Author of “Biodiesel Homebrew Guide”) Since 2003 he has had his own vegetable oil powered school bus with a solar powered sound system that he uses to promote his message of clean, renewable home-grown biodiesel fuel.

As a resident of New York Cities Lower-East-Side and a carpenter, Brent has worked for years with community groups to build affordable housing in New York City's low-income communities. The experience of being a long-time active member of NYC's homestead movement, (which renovates abandoned city-owned property to create low-income, tenant-controlled housing) has given Brent the skills to negotiate group dynamics while successfully completing a large projects. His Lower East Side homestead is a permanent low-income, tenant-controlled co-op and is a sterling example of a successful homestead project.

In 1995 he organized a successful traveling political theatre tour, called the Nomadic Festival, which is now the subject of the book, Carnival of Chaos-On the Road with the Nomadic Festival. This book is remains one of the best sellers in the catalog of its publisher, Autonomedia. The tour and the book helped to inspire/invigorate a youth sub-culture, which might be termed political-circus. It combined traveling circus, sound-systems, theatre, and politics into a roving festival in a way that had been done very seldom if ever in the US. A massive networking effort, all done with very little money, the Nomadic Festival created a series of youth festivals around the country that exposed hundreds of young people to alternative lifestyles and politics. This is also the year when he began promoting Biodiesel Fuel

In 1996, he co-founded Steal This Radio, a community radio station in his New York City neighborhood that was dedicated to public affairs and cultural programming unrepresented in the mainstream press. Through his work as program director at the station, Brent became deeply involved in the national micro-radio and alternative media movements and organized successfully with those groups to create a national micro-radio service in the United States.

As an electronica DJ, Brent, known as DJ Chrome, has developed a strong and dedicated following in the New York music scene, and has been written about in the Village Voice, Mixer, College Music Journal, and many other publications. As a partner in the New York City's well-known Blackkat collective since 1997, Brent has organized and performed at some of the biggest dance parties in the city, including Blackkat's annual Mayday festival that consistently attracts several thousand people. Over the last six years Blackkat has combined art and politics at its music-driven multimedia events, exposing hundreds of young people to various alternative ideas and challenging politics. Blackkat has also done fundraising events for many different progressive and radical causes, such as World Bank protests, abortion clinic access, international observers in Palestine, and so many more. For many in NY, Blackkat has changed their perception of what dance music culture is and can be.

In September 2002, inspired in part by the events of September 11, 2001, Brent formed the non-profit sustainable energy advocacy group Sustainable Energy Now. (Now known simply as biotour.org) As director of SEN, Brent began writing grants and organizing a national tour to promote bio fuels and sustainable energy. Brent was successful in raising the money and materials to put together a vegetable oil powered bus, a solar powered sound system with which to do presentations, two national 2 and 1/2 month tours, and various local and regional events. Biotour.org has been successful in reaching thousands of people directly and millions through radio and print interviews.

Brent’s latest venture is Tri-State Biodiesel Inc. TSB was formed in June 2004 with the mission of building New State first biodiesel refinery, using primarily waste restaurant grease to supply the residents of the NY region with clean, renewable, biodiesel fuel. Under it’s president and CEO, Brent Baker, TSB has built a strong corporate team and is currently preparing to break ground for the building of it’s facility.

Through out the years of these experiences Brent has been involved in scores of political campaigns, both local and global in nature. Some examples are; saving the community gardens; fighting for local community centers; organizing busses to the World Bank/IMF protests; organizing rallies for affordable housing; working on the successful city council campaign of radical Latina lesbian, Margarita Lopez; presenting workshops on recycled building techniques; and various other activities. Through these activities, combined with six years organizing cultural events, and twelve years of annual cross-country road trips, Brent has developed relationships with many, cutting-edge activists and organizations throughout the country which can serve as a powerful network for the execution of this important project.

Here are some of my accomplishments:

Tri-State Biodiesel, NY, NY
President/CEO July 2004 to present

Biotour.org, NY, NY
Director September 2002 to present

As director of Biotour.org, a non-profit environmental awareness group (www.biotour.org), I conceived of, and fundraised for, the B.I.O. Tour Project. The B.I.O. Tour Project was to build a 35 foot school bus that runs on used cooking grease from restaurants, and is equipped with a solar-powered sound system for presentations, and tour the United States with it, promoting sustainable energy. I have toured the country with the B.I.O. Bus the last two summers, as well as making many regional appearances in the North East. As the organizer of the Bio Tour Project, I have written grants, built and updated the Biotour website, conducted press campaigns, organized national tours, created outreach materials, conducted workshops, participated in panels and interviews, as well as holding down all the administration duties of my organization. I have networked with people and organizations around the city and around the country as part of my on going efforts to promote clean renewable energy and fuel.

Blackkat Collective NYC, NY
Co-founder, events coordinator, performer October 1997 to present

As an events coordinator and DJ with the Blackkat Collective, a non-profit cultural collective that hosts events that combine art, music, and politics. (www.blackkat.org), I have organized benefit concerts and parties for numerous non-profit organizations and activist causes in the city. I have partnered with, and organized benefit events for, many groups including the League of Pissed Off Voters, the Sierra Club, the Brecht Forum, Bluestockings Books, Direct Action Network, and many more. Blackkat also organizes an annual free event celebrating the workers holiday, Mayday, which attracts several thousand people each year. Besides organizing and promoting the events, I also perform as a dance DJ known as “DJ Chrome.”

Independent carpenter and tradesman, NY, NY
Intermittently from July 1990 to present

I’m a self taught A-to-Z carpenter with additional experience in residential plumbing and electrical. Specializing in fine woodwork and cabinetry, currently working for a high-end cabinet shop in Brooklyn.

Eviction watch committee, NY NY
Member 1990 to present

Eviction watch committee is the loosely structured organizing group for the Lower East Side Homesteaders/Squatters movement. I have been actively involved since 1990, helping to organize protest rallies, publicity campaigns, and other housing rights related actions. I have also been very active as part of a coalition that has successfully organized to legalize 11 squatted buildings in the Lower East Side, creating hundreds of units of permanent low-income housing in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. I have personally renovated or helped to renovate dozens of apartments in the Lower East Side, including my own.

Father
November 6th 1995 to present

An occupation that too often goes unrecognized. Active and engaged parent, participating in my daughter’s school events and her class, as well as in issues of the local school board.

Steal This Radio, NY, NY
Co-founder, program director, chief fundraiser December 1995 to October 1998

Steal This Radio was a Lower East Side based community micro-broadcasting radio station. My responsibilities included publicity and community outreach, creating and disseminating a program schedule, organizing fundraising events at local community centers, and other general business, as well as hosting a weekly program. As a co-founder of the station, I worked with the national micro-radio movement, which was eventually successful in lobbying the FCC to create a legal micro-radio service in the United States.