Last night, six other Board of Education candidates and I spoke at the 9th Ward Democratic Club meeting at Urban Chestnut (4465 Manchester). The ward includes the Central West End, Forest Park South East, and Kings Oak neighborhoods. Committeewoman Debra Loveless, Committeeman Parker Loveless, St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees candidate Holly Talir, and 9th Ward Alderman Michael Browning were also there. Alderman Browning endorsed me on February 5. I’m the only school board candidate he’s endorsed.
Tuesday, April 8 7 – 10 pm St. Louis Skatium 120 E Catalan St / 63111
“Begin with the end in mind,” said Stephen Covey. Thinking about this watch party is helping me get through the campaign.
G.Wiz and Trackstar the DJ will be on the turntables. G.Wiz, the Godpops of St. Louis Hip-hop, directed The Rink, a documentary about local African-American rollerskating culture. The mayor’s office proclaimed October 21 to be G.Wiz Day in St. Louis. You might know Trackstar from his One Dollar Mix series, Rap Fan merchandise, or this little group called Run the Jewels.
Hey, friends: in honor of Black History Month, and even though I can’t seem to get my book banned despite it discussing accurate American history, here we go again.
For the month of February 2025, I will be donating my profits from the online sales of Standing Up for Civil Rights in St. Louis to the Left Bank Books Literacy and Justice Project, providing free copies of banned books to households that request them (often, these are books written by authors who are Black, brown, female, or LGBTQ+…or a combination of these!)
To buy a copy of this IPPY award-winning book (co-authored with Dr. Melanie Adams), here’s the link, and I’m happy to personalize and ship it to you for no extra charge.
On Wednesday, the Green Party of St. Louis hosted a rescheduled school board candidate forum at Legacy Bar & Grill in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers (Local 420), St. Louis Democratic Socialists, Universal African Peoples Organization, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Communities’ One Project, Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri, and Organization for Black Struggle. The event was covered by KSDK. My 10-year-old campaign manager made it into the newscast.
Screenshot from KSDK coverage
Transcript of my opening and closing statements
Opening
My name is Brian H. Marston.
I’m the only candidate who currently has kids enrolled in SLPS. I’ve been an SLPS parent since 2012.
I’m the only candidate who filed a January Quarterly Report with the Missouri Ethics Commission.That’s an indication of my commitment to ethics, transparency, and accurate accounting.
I’m a first-generation college graduate with an education degree. I also have degrees in math and philosophy.
I’d be a certified high school math and Spanish teacher, if I’d done my student teaching my senior year. Instead, I started a web development company because I fell in love with the idea that information wants to be free.
I have more than 25 years of IT experience. I’m good with spreadsheets and making systems and processes more efficient.
The hardest and most meaningful thing I’ve done is being the director of North St. Louis YouthBuild, a construction training and GED program in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
I worked with neighborhood residents, students, board members, union representatives, social workers, parole officers, politicians, government officials, donors, and volunteers to build the program from the ground up.
We converted a two-story Sunday school to a two-family building. When we started, the roof was in the basement, which was an apt metaphor for a lot of things. Some of the 18-to-24-year-old students entered the program with 4th-grade reading levels.
YouthBuild was housed on the corner of 19th and Newhouse at Friedens Church, which suffered a horrible fire two days ago, on Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King Day. I’m still trying to process that.
In other volunteer roles, I’ve been the president of The Commonspace, Metropolis St. Louis, and my neighborhood association, and vice-president of BWorks.
I have a solid track record of working with people in north city, south city, and the central corridor to help make St. Louis a better place.
Closing
Thank you to Legacy Bar & Grill for hosting this event, and to all the sponsoring groups for organizing the forum.
Most of all, thank you to all of you for caring enough to be here tonight. Our public schools are worth caring about. They’re the cornerstone of democracy. Both are under attack. Monday wasn’t just MLK Day and the day Friedens Church burned to the ground: it was also Inauguration Day. We’ve got some difficult days ahead.
The district and the board have received a lot of attention lately, most of it negative. I’m hoping we can work together to take that attention and turn it into positive outcomes.
My campaign site is at brianhmarston.com. I’ve got yard signs in my car, if you’d like one.
While I was at the Touhill Performing Arts Center for the MLK celebration today, Friedens United Church of Christ at the corner of 19th and Newhouse was burning (video). I’ve spent some time on that corner. It means a lot to me.
I was last there for a walking tour of the Hyde Park neighborhood in August. I took a bunch of photos.
August 10, 2024
Previously, I was the director of North St. Louis YouthBuild, a construction training and GED program housed at Friedens.
Friedens foreverMe with 15-day-old Milo, on the way to his first board meeting in 2008
Before that, I was the treasurer of Friedens Neighborhood Foundation. Before that, I helped organize a breakdancing competition at Friedens and attended the free community lunches on Wednesdays.
I’ve maintained an unreasonable hope that something would breathe new life into those buildings. Now it seems they’ve passed on to the other side.
The keynote speaker was Fredrika Newton, Huey P. Newton’s widow. Her talk about being committed, body and soul, to the well-being of a community hit me hard. Afterwards, I made myself useful by taking group photos for people and got a chance to thank Fredrika. She wished me luck on my school board run.
If you had plucked my alter ego Mosh Hard out of the pit at an Urge concert at Kennedy’s in the early 90s and told me that in 30-something years I’d be running for school board and Steve Ewing would endorse me, I’d be like, “Whatchoo talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?” Steve’s brought so much joy to my life. Four Years of Flavor, the photography book about him, is dropping in about a week.
Photo by my campaign manager, SLPS fifth grader Molly Marston
