Women are at the forefront of activism, and the Austin Woman staff reflect on those who have inspired them.
Stacy Coale
Media Sales Executive
The large-scale, vibrant mixed media and collaged art by Austin-based artist Xochi Solis was the first thing that captured my attention. As I learned that Solis was the founding board president at Future Front, a nonprofit collective of activists, artists and organizers in Austin, focused on community-building and advocating for social change, I became a fangirl. Future Front connects women and LGBTQIA+ communities through a biannual marketplace, an annual festival in the fall and their Future Front House, a community space for hosting workshops, pop-ups and art shows. Solis also spins vinyl records as DJ Mira Mira, with the goal of preserving and celebrating Tejanx culture. Solis’ art and music literally make Austin a more colorful city. I deeply admire and appreciate her commitment to providing creative platforms for women, women of color and the LGBTQIA+ community to shine.
Jordan Faris
Media Sales Executive
Keep Austin Fed is a volunteer-based nonprofit that gathers surplus food from restaurants, grocery stores, etc., keeping it out of the waste stream and delivering it to area charities serving people in need. Their mission is to reduce hunger and help the environment by connecting surplus food with our neighbors in need. Volunteers rescue thousands of meals each month, feeding hundreds of our neighbors living with food insecurity and putting a dent in the amount of food in the U.S. that ends up in a landfill and produces harmful methane gas.
Melinda Garvey
Co-founder
Kindness might not be what initially comes to mind when you think of activism—defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “the use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one.” After meeting Andra Liemandt and watching her build The Kindness Campaign out of a passion for and recognition of the need to teach our next generation of leaders what it means to make an impact on our community, I, too, began to realize that although kindness could be seen as a “soft” skill, it is really a core skill, one that is sorely needed in our world today. All of the activism, social justice and social impact work in the world will not realize the desired impact unless it is paired with the art of kindness. Check out tkckindness.org to get involved.
Cy White
Managing Editor
This is almost an unfair question. (And I’m the one who made it up!) There are so many women-identified activists leading the charge for equity and justice in Austin that to single out just one person or organization seems just wrong. Today, however, I’m going to talk about two women who led the charge for accountability and protection of the AANHPI community in Austin, co-founders of Asian Texans for Justice, Lily Trieu and Alice Yi. The reason these two incredible women were even on my radar is because of their work during the height of a recent wave of anti-Asian violence and discrimination. Back in April 2021, led by their fearless leaders Trieu and Yi, the Asian Texans for Justice organized more than 1,000 people from across Texas in the largest #StopAsianHate rally in the country. These two women created a safe space for their community that doesn’t have an equal in the entire state of Texas. It’s incredible how much work, dedication, sweat and emotion equity they’ve put into ensuring that the people of AANHPI communities, in Texas and nationwide, are protected, safe and feel heard.