#FearlessFridays: Patrisse Cullors

Every Friday in June, we’re honoring Pride Month by featuring a member of the LGBTQ community. Next up: queer artist/activist Patrisse Cullors! A Fulbright Scholarship recipient, Cullors received a degree in religion and philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2012. The following year, frustrated by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, she and fellow community activists Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi founded Black Lives Matter, which protests against anti-black racism and police violence. The organization has become internationally known, a focal point in the galvanization of countless younger BIPOC activists. As a performance artist, Cullors has used her medium of choice to address police brutality, the violence of incarceration, and black liberation. She is the author of the best-selling memoir When They Call You a Terrorist.