The arts have been an essential component to building power, expressing joy, healing, and amplifying a vision of thriving Black communities for generations. Amidst the backdrop of the rise in hate crimes against the Asian and Pacific Islander American community (APIA) and murders of Daunte Wright and Ma'Khia Bryant in spring 2021, Gabrielle and Anna Huang sought out art as an outlet for healing and unity. For them, fostering deep and meaningful collaboration between Black and APIA communities is essential to imagining, designing, building and sustaining multigenerational wealth and change. They partnered on the #ShareYourAsianStory campaign, using art to describe the microaggressions APIA and BIPOC women face everyday.
Our ancestors left us a roadmap to achieving structural change. Sojourner Truth unwaveringly fought for Black rights and women's rights, teaching us that intersectoral social justice solutions are essential to achieving multi-generational wealth and change. Through oratory, she reminds us about the importance of public narrative - about creating a sense of belonging to an audacious vision across multiple identity groups to advance change.
On her legacy, Shirley Chisholm once said, “I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.” For THP, Chisholm’s legacy represents a vision, seven generations from now, of Black women in key positions of power driving the design and sustainability of thriving Black communities. At the core of her “unbought and unbossed” legacy, she reminds us that our character will speak for our legacy when we become ancestors.
“If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” - Toni Morrison.
Michelle Obama and Madame Vice President Kamala Harris remind us “we are our sister’s keeper.” Often “the first” and “the only,” we hold sacred the power of our sisterhood. Together, we have infinite possibilities.
Stacey Abrams shows us the importance of rest as leaders - particularly in the face of loss. After her gubernatorial loss, she sat still for 10 days. Afterwards, she started planning - ultimately building a durable coalition that would change the trajectory of democracy. Sometimes our best move in the face of adversity and challenge is to not move, but to rest.
At age six, Ruby Bridges’ leadership was essential to the advancement of civil rights for Black Americans. Her courage, and the courage of her parents, resulted in multiple generations of leaders focused on creating and expanding access to the core components of a quality education for Black communities - a free, quality preschool; high, challenging standards, engaging teaching and leadership, and a safe, supportive, and well-resourced school.
Octavia E. Butler was a visionary author, who imagined an alternate future for herself and our shared world. Through science fiction, she created a blueprint for afrofuturism and THP in imagining a future void of structures that violently oppress Black communities.
Anna Huang is a fashion designer, artist, and boutique fitness fanatic who resides in New York City. You can follow her work at Dolls in a Row.
