Black Feminist Future’s North Star Gala
As an organizational practice, Black Feminist Future opens up spaces by asking folks who their Black feminist north star is to name those who have guided our way through their words, practice, and tenacity. It is in that spirit that we have named our special event, The North Star Gala.
North Star Gala
North Star Gala
Celebrating and Honoring Black Feminists
The North Star Gala will entail a cocktail reception, dinner, and an honoree program followed by a celebratory dance party. This night of celebration will be held in conjunction with Get Free: A Black Feminist Reunion, Black Feminist Future’s national Black feminist conference.
Our North Star Honorees
Without their contributions, our Black feminist movement and broader social movements would not be what they are today.
Ericka Huggins
Ericka Huggins is a human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther leader and former political prisoner. For the past 37 years, she has lectured throughout the United States and internationally. Her extraordinary life experiences have enabled her to speak personally and eloquently on issues relating to the physical and emotional well-being of women, children and youth, whole being education, over incarceration, and the role of the spiritual practice in sustaining activism and promoting social change. As a result of her 14-year tenure as a leading leader of the Black Panther Party (the longest of any woman in leadership), she brings a unique, complete and honest perspective to the challenges and successes of the Black Panther Party and, its significance today.
Angela Y. Davis is professor emerita of history of consciousness and feminist studies at University of California, Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle. Her most recent books include Abolition.Feminism.Now., written with Gina Dent, Erica Meiners and Beth Richie, and a book of essays entitled Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Vol. 1. She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex.
Angela Davis
Byllye Yvonne Avery is a pioneering advocate for global sexual and reproductive justice, particularly for Black women and girls. Sparked by the sudden death of her husband in 1970, she dedicated her life to improving Black community health, co-founding the Gainesville Women’s Health Center and the Birthplace in Florida. She launched the first national conference on Black women's health in 1983 and founded the National Black Women’s Health Project (now the Black Women’s Health Imperative). A mentor and educator, Avery has held academic positions at Harvard and Columbia and received numerous honors, including the MacArthur Genius Award. Now retired in Provincetown, Massachusetts, she is writing her memoir.
Byllye Avery
Alexis De Veaux, born in Harlem to a family rooted in both Caribbean and Southern Black traditions, emerged as a powerful literary voice shaped by the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and beyond. Drawn to storytelling early on, she developed a multifaceted writing career that spans fiction, poetry, children's literature, and biography. Her work centers the lives and voices of Black women, blending genres and challenging conventions. Notable works include Don’t Explain, a biography of Billie Holiday, and Warrior Poet, an acclaimed biography of Audre Lorde. A global traveler and former Essence contributor, she was the first North American writer to interview Nelson Mandela after his release. Today, she continues to write, lecture, and engage in cultural activism through projects like Lyrical Democracies and her return to fiction with Yabo.
Alexis De Veaux
Women With A Vision, Inc (WWAV) is a community-based nonprofit, founded in 1989 by a grassroots collective of African-American women in response to the spread of HIV/AIDS in communities of color. Recognizing that the face of HIV/AIDS has changed in the New Orleans area, with heterosexual Black women becoming the fastest growing population of newly-diagnosed cases in the city and state, this initial group of women disseminated HIV/AIDS education and substance abuse resources to individuals practicing high-risk behaviors such as injection drug use and unsafe sex practices. Over the last 25 years, WWAV has become New Orleans’ premier women’s health organization combining service and advocacy to address the social conditions and injustices that impact our city’s most marginalized women.
Women with a Vision
