During this LGBT History month and African American History month, we celebrate Alicia Garza as a queer black activist.
“We are fighting for a different world, and we are building new muscles to do so.”
Alicia Garza is an American civil rights activist and writer and co-founded the international Black Lives Matter movement.
“Anger is not a sustainable emotion in and of itself. It has to be transformed into a deep love for the possibility of who we can be.”
In 2016 Alicia was honoured by Glamour magazine, along with her co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, with the award of Women of the Year for creating a space that celebrates and humanises black lives.
“When people come together to solve problems, they do not automatically become immune to the ways society and the economy are organized. We bring the things that shape us, consciously and unconsciously, everywhere we go. Unless we are intentional about interrupting what we've learned, we will perpetuate it, even as we are working hard for a better world.”
In 2020 Alicia released her book ‘The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart’, and through her work with Black Futures Lab brought queer black folks to the polls. She has been working to engage the Black community, and be
more inclusive of queer black people.
Each month we mark the significant life of a person of colour as a positive statement and a contribution to redressing historical imbalances in our society.
illustration by Simon Gosling