British Vogue’s activism issue five changemakers you should know

The September issue of British Vogue is the most important of the year, and editor-in-chief Edward Enninful has used the opportunity to honour some of the most influential activists of our time.

Footballer and free school meals campaigner Marcus Rashford appears on the cover of the magazine with model and mental health activist Adwoa Aboah, and a special pull-out cover features 18 more “faces of hope”.

These are some of the most well-known activists in the world – like Angela Davis, Jane Elliott and Janet Mock – as well as some equally important names you might not be as familiar with.

These are some of the inspirational figures featured, that you should get to know…

1. Yvette Williams

Yvette Williams is best known for her work as a campaigner for Justice4Grenfell, a community-led organisation demanding justice for the bereaved families and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, in June 2017.

On the third anniversary of the fire, Williams wrote in Harper’s Bazaar: “The Grenfell disaster should have been a catalyst for change. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry should have been our George Floyd moment. We need to learn from flashpoints of institutional discrimination and interrogate injustice. We cannot walk backwards from here.”

2. Patrisse Cullors

Patrisse Cullors refers to herself as an “artist, author, educator, political strategist and organiser”. The LA-based activist is one of three co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath of the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman.

She also works for reform of the US criminal justice system. After her brother was beaten in police custody, Cullers set up Dignity and Power Now – an organisation dedicated to building a “Black and Brown led abolitionist movement” to tackle mass incarceration.

3. Phyll Opoku-Gyimah

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah – otherwise known as Lady Phyll – is a co-founder of UK Black Pride and executive director of the organisation. She works with various charities, including the Kaleidoscope Trust, which advocates for the human rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and akt, an LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity.

In an interview with LGBTQ Women, Opoku-Gyimah said: “So much of our lived experience, as Black women and as queer Black women, is about fighting for the right to be heard, seen and valued, and so I’m inspired by women who won’t be quiet, who speak truth to power and who never let up.”

4. Dr Meenal Viz

While many of us have spent the majority of the year safely at home, Dr Meenal Viz was working on the front lines as a healthcare professional – and doing so while heavily pregnant.

If this wasn’t enough, she also waged a campaign for the government to provide the NHS with more personal protective equipment (PPE). She told PA at the end of May: “From a mental health perspective we have been put in a warzone and only been given a butter knife.”

5. Alice Wong

Alice Wong is an American disability rights campaigner. She founded the Disability Visibility Project, an “online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.”

Wong has just edited an anthology of stories from disabled people called Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, and has been outspoken about how the pandemic has disproportionately affected the disabled community.

The September issue of British Vogue will be available on newsstands and digital download on Friday August 7.

Image: PA