Alicia Garza Talks About the Purpose of Power

Jan 3, 2022

After two jam-packed days of YES! Fest, author, organizer, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza closed out our 25th anniversary celebration with a thoughtful and forward-looking exploration of the purpose of power鈥攁lso the title of her new book. In conversation with YES! Executive Editor Zenobia Jeffries Warfield, Garza reflected on how she decided to write a book that offers a road map for organizers who want to make change in their communities.

Garza said she wanted the book to be 鈥渂readcrumbs in the forest for people who are coming in to social change. It鈥檚 also a way to sharpen an ongoing and existing practice for people who have been involved in social change for a long time.鈥�

In this way and many others, Garza and Jeffries Warfield connect the dots across generations of social change movements and the people and forces that have fueled and shaped the progress we鈥檝e seen鈥攁nd those who continue to carry the torch and light the way forward for all of us. Garza is clear that neither she nor any one person has all the answers to addressing the challenges we鈥檙e facing. But by coming together and each finding our own unique way to contribute to the struggle, we can move ever closer to our collective liberation.

Sunnivie Brydum is the managing editor at YES! An award-winning investigative journalist with a background covering LGBTQ equality, Sunnivie previously led digital coverage at The Advocate, Free Speech TV, and Out Front Colorado. Their writing has appeared in Vox, Religion Dispatches, them., and elsewhere. She has a degree in magazine journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and is a co-founder of , an annual symposium in Medell铆n, Colombia, that amplifies the stories of LGBTQ people in Latin America. They are based in Seattle, speak English and Spanish, and are a member of NLGJA, SPJ, and ONA.