For UCLA alumna Sasha Brookner, exposure to avant-garde music
and culture is nothing new.
Brookner, a Berkeley, Calif. native, grew up alongside Telegraph
Avenue and the East Oakland music scene. Now Brookner, 29, is
successfully heading Heliocentric Public Relations, a publicity
firm just as eccentric and culturally conscious as her
hometown.
“During my senior year at UCLA, I began interning at
various entertainment-related companies solely to obtain school
credit,” Brookner said. “It was never my intention to
formulate a career for myself in the entertainment industry, (but)
when I discovered PR, I realized that I could work with writers and
editors who were creative people similar to myself.”
In 1999, Brookner graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s
degree in history with an emphasis on Egyptology, without ever
intending to go into the field of public relations. However, after
falling into positions within the publicity departments at the
House of Blues in Los Angeles and at the short-lived independent
record company Red Ant, Brookner found the industry connections
necessary to build her burgeoning career in publicity.
Though Brookner worked at renowned publicity firm The Courtney
Barnes Group for a few years, doing work for multi-platinum artists
such as TLC, Usher and Sisqo, it was not until Brookner ran across
a magazine article featuring Eryakah Badu’s backup singer
N’Dambi that she found the initial inspiration for starting
up Heliocentric Public Relations.
“I was intrigued by (N’Dambi’s) story and
decided to call up her management,” Brookner said. “I
wouldn’t have been able to simultaneously work with her on
the side while working with The Courtney Barnes Group, so I put in
my letter of resignation and ordered my business cards the same
week.”
After booking N’Dambi as Heliocentric’s first
client, Brookner’s then-upstart company was able to obtain
visibility for N’Dambi in publications such as Harper’s
Bazaar, Elle and Vibe, inciting a torrent of independent soul
artists to hire Heliocentric to represent their projects.
“I started HPR because I had a growing desire to help
publicize and promote artists (such as N’Dambi) who I felt
were making positive and constructive contributions to the industry
and our society in general,” Brookner said. “I enjoy
helping independent singers reach that level of mainstream exposure
without having to conform to a major label’s idea of who or
what they want them to be.”
Growing up with strong musical influences such as Billie
Holiday, Nina Simone and Miriam Makeba, Brookner has created an
unwavering ideal for her company and selectively chooses artists
who reflect that ideal of artistic progression and social
nonconformity. Though HPR has represented household names such as
Andre 3000 from Outkast, Ciara and Cee-Lo, Brookner explains that
the real satisfaction behind her company is its ability to bring
often-unrecognized artists into high profile media outlets like
Rolling Stone, GQ, Essence, BET and MTV.
Disturbed by what she considers a trend toward material
glorification, violence and misogyny in current urban culture,
Brookner explicitly promotes artists who reflect an urban vibe
without compromising the passion and socio-political awareness that
she feels is essential to artistry.
“We are trying to promote avant-garde, activist,
innovative, creative and revolutionary new talents who are
contributing to the community through their artistry in order to
combat some of the subliminal beliefs and ideologies that we are
inundated with by Hollywood on a daily basis,” Brookner
said.
Currently, Heliocentric works with a variety of both mainstream
and independent artists, further fostering its mission to
revolutionize the entertainment industry by publicizing diverse and
proactive artists such as Cleveland, Ohio songstress Conya Doss,
alternative rock/soul artist Joi and rising Columbia Records soul
singer Goapele, who can quote Nelson Mandela in her music just as
easily as she does Prince.
For Goapele, working with Brookner has provided a kindred
spirit.
“My career has gradually grown and HPR has been able to
support that from the grass-roots level all the way to the national
level,” Goapele said. “Starting out as an independent
artist, it was very important for me to have a publicist that
understood my music and where I was trying to go.”