The ACC Library, Avid Bookshop and Athens Pride & Queer Collective are hosting a book release event for The Risk it Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation by Raquel Willis. A powerful Black transgender activist, Willis seeks to bring awareness to specific issues throughout her trailblazing memoir. Detailing her own liberation and story, Willis hopes to show members of the LGBTQ+ community how certain issues, including those in her youth, affected her personal journey. Before finding community at the University of Georgia and exploring her gender, Willis was raised in a Catholic home in Augusta. Feeling isolated in this environment was not unusual for Willis. It was when she left home for college that she found her voice. She received her BA in journalism at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication before becoming a reporter amidst the movement for Black lives, rise of intersectional feminism and increased recognition of the LGBTQ+ community. This inspired her to bring attention to violence against transgender women of color. After community organizing in various cities such as Atlanta and New York, Willis became one of the most well-known activists for transgender Black women, winning multiple awards for her efforts. This memoir is a collection of her life and what she means to the LGBTQ+ community. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.
WHO: Raquel Willis
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m.
WHERE: ACC Library
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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