Black LGBTQ+ activists launch new university

A coalition of queer and trans black activists have launched a new organisation called the Free Black University to provide “transformational education” for black students, writes Sam Damshenas for Gay Times.

Described as a “hub for radical and transformative knowledge production”, the Free Black University was founded after years of campaigning for Black rights by Melz Owusu, who will soon be a PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge. “We realised that our current institutions do not have the full capacity, or imagination, to be able to serve our community in our wholeness. We started the Free Black University to do just that,” Owusu said.

“We offer alternative education that does not see black and LGBTQ+ students as an addition or after-thought, but as the centre of the educational experience. We also recognise that university can often be quite a traumatising experience for black students. We commit to supporting these students with mental health support and holistic approaches to healing. The Free Black University is committed to incubating the radical knowledge needed to take our society into a different age in which we no longer have to speak about equality and diversity because it is just embedded within society.”
Full report on the Gay Times site