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5 Queer Black Women You Should Know

Black queer women are gaining more and more visibility and are unapologetically taking up space in media, academia, music, and activist circuits. There have been several listicles naming powerful queer women of color who have become a staple part of our cultural imagination, but we have five we think are deserving of some extra attention. Dr. Harper’s name will forever be marked in the historical legacy of intersectional activism. Cited byFeminist Wire as one of the “top intersectional vegan theorists” of our time, Dr. Harper is the the creator of the Sistah Vegan Project, editor of Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society. and author of the new novel Scars: A Black Lesbian Experience in Rural White New England.

Dr. Harper has a brilliant way of demonstrating how food politics, racism, sexism, ability, and sexual politics intersect. She has successfully organized two online conferences dealing with veganism and blackness. Last month she hosted one called The Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matter.

She is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for two new book projects Gs Up Hoes Down: Black Masculinity, Veganism, and Ethical Consumption (The Remix) and Black Lives Matter: A Vegan Praxis. THEESatisfaction is a hip hop/R&B duo composed of rapper Stasia “Stas” Irons and Catherine “Cat” Harris-White. Based in Seattle, the duo is known for “funk-psychedelic feminist sci-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brow, Ursula Rucks, and Q-Tip.”

THEESatisfaction regularly hosts epic Black Weirdo parties that serve as dance parties for the black queer community and allies. DJs and underground artists share their music in an environment that is warm and safe, unlike some nightclubs and bars. They also just finished playing a few dates with Sleater-Kinney.

In an interview with Bitch Magazine, Cat said:

“Queer and trans woman are doing amazing and groundbreaking work in the world of art. There’s more of a place for women in the arts now, especially for women of color and Black women to be free and to express themselves… I don’t feel like there will ever be a time where feminism won’t be needed. It is a proclamation of female empowerment. I think it’s a really amazing time to be a woman.”
Co-founder of the hashtag #blacklivesmatter (alongside Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi), Garza is a queer black feminist activist who also organizes with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Her activist work has catapulted her into the spotlight and she has received the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Jeanne Guana Communicate Justice award from the Center for Media Justice, and has been honored with the Harvey Milk Democratic Club with the Bayard Rustin Community Activist award for her work fighting gentrification in San Francisco.

Garza is also known for participating in the shutdown of the Oakland BART station. According to the Grist, she was among the protesters who walked into a BART car and locked themselves down to safety rails, seeking to shut BART down for the amount of time that Michael Brown‘s body laid in the street-four and a half hours.

Garza’s bold stance on issues dealing with racism and exploitation secures her a spot as a trailblazing activist in our popular culture. Lena Waithe is a bold game changer who is quickly becoming a household name. From co-producing Dear White People to writing a few episodes of Bones, The Real World and Hello Cupid, Waithe has become one of the most creative voices that our generation has ever heard.

She speaks candidly about supporting minoritized media and independent voices. In an interview with the Visibility Project, Waithe said:

“We’re making movies that we really care about, the film and the characters; we spent time making them great for the audience. I’m tired of this whole McDonalds sort of movie. They’re McDonalds movies. They make them in a short period of time, put them out, and people will come out in droves. My thing is, no, people should demand more from their artists, from their cinema, from their nutrition.”
Waithe spoke to AfterEllen in October, 2014 about her show Twenties, which features a queer woman of color as the lead character.

 

Follow these women on Twitter and keep up with their moves: @breezeharper, @stasandcat, @aliciagarza and @hillmangrad.

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