Raquel Willis will dicuss her memoir that traces her life of transformation and her work towards collective liberation. She will be joined in conversation by Londyn Smith de Richelieu, director of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs.
In 2017, Raquel Willis took to the National Women’s March podium just after the presidential election of Donald Trump, primed to tell her story as a young Black transgender woman from the South. Despite having her speaking time cut short, the appearance only deepened her commitment to speaking up for communities on the margins.
Born in Augusta, Georgia, to Black Catholic parents, Raquel spent years feeling isolated, even within a loving, close-knit family. There was little access to understanding what it meant to be queer and transgender. It wasn’t until she went to the University of Georgia that she found the LGBTQ+ community, fell in love, and explored her gender for the first time. But the unexpected death of her father forced her to examine her relationship with herself and those she loved. These years of grief, misunderstanding, and hard-won epiphanies seeped into the soil of her life, serving as fertilizer for growth and allowing her to bloom within.
Upon graduation, Raquel entered a career in journalism against the backdrop of the burgeoning Movement for Black Lives, intersectional feminism going mainstream, and unprecedented visibility of the trans community. After hiding her identity as a newspaper reporter, her increasing awareness of the epidemic of violence plaguing trans women of color and the heightened suicide of trans teens inspired her to come out publicly. Within just a few short years of community organizing in Atlanta, Oakland, and New York, Raquel emerged as one of the most formidable Black trans activists in history.
In The Risk It Takes to Bloom, Raquel Willis recounts with passion and candor her experiences straddling the Obama and Trump eras, the possibility of transformation after tragedy, and how complex moments can push us all to take necessary risks and bloom toward collective liberation.
About the Author:
Raquel Willis (she/her) is an award-winning writer, activist, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She has been director of communications for Ms. Foundation for Women, executive editor of Out magazine, and national organizer for the Transgender Law Center. Her writing has been published in Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham, and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain, among other places. She has also written for Essence, Bitch, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Cut, and Vogue.
About the Moderator:
Londyn Smith de Richelieu is the director of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. She has advocated for policy reforms and community development through her work with the National Black Justice Coalition, Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Democrats, American Public Health Association, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research, Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition, SWOP, AIDS United, and many other community-based organizations. Londyn was a part of the historic transgender implementation team supporting Spelman College’s devotion to diversity and inclusion. Londyn proudly serves as the mother to the iconic House Ballroom family Miyake Mugler. Previously, she served as research coordinator focused on capacity building and knowledge translation at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, health policy analyst at the Elliot Group, and as a contractual health policy and equity consultant.
Program Information:
Virtual Meeting Information
There is no registration required for virtual attendance, simply visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.
Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Central Library, Wheeler Auditorium
400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201