Interview: Vanessa Taylor (Minneapolis, MI)

Vanessa Taylor is a co-founder of the seminal youth-led organization, Black Liberation Project (BLP), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is interested in using a multi-disciplinary approach to social justice from on-the-ground activism to finding accessible ways to educate community with writing as a way to make sense of it all. Her work with BLP has included the development of a #No2SROs campaign to remove police from schools, facilitation, promoting healing spaces, community outreach, and etc. She is an experienced presenter, having designed and conducted workshops for organizations such as The Center For Prophetic Imagination, Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative, and Showing Up For Racial Justice MN. She is also a free-lance writer and poet whose work focuses on exploring Black womanhood and Muslim identity. Her activism and writing has been featured in AJ+, Elle, Nylon, Racked, among many others. .