Source: Arturo Holmes / Getty
Janelle Monáe’s Fem The Future nonprofit is paving the way for a “fem-forward” future.
In partnership with the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund, Fem The Future announced a $150,000 grant March 22. The funds will be used to develop various enrichment programs for girls and non-binary youth. The grant will also “serve as a pilot for longer-term collaboration between the two organizations,” according to a press release.
Fem The Future’s mission is building “a fem-forward future by creating opportunities for under-resourced girls and non-binary youth of color in music, the arts, and education.”
Janelle Monáe On Fem The Future’s Latest Move
“In partnership with the Social Justice Fund, we’re giving girls the chance to own their power — and change the world,” Monáe said in a statement. “The SJF grant will support Fem The Future as it develops programming for girls and non-binary youth and shines light on their talent — helping them build confidence, expand educational opportunities and make informed decisions about their bodies, their lives and their futures. A beautiful future begins with uplifting the next generation of artists, activists and freedom fighters.”
Monáe translates her dedication to a fem-forward future in much of her work as an entertainer, author and non-binary individual. The singer’s 2018 album Dirty Computer includes the captivating feminist and queer anthem, “Pynk.”
The music video’s description says the song is “a brash celebration of creation, self-love, sexuality and pussy power!” according to VOX. “Pynk is the color that unites us all, for pink is the color found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere… Pynk is where the future is born….”
In 2022, Monáe shared that she identifies as non-binary during a Red Table Talk conversation with the show’s hosts, Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris. Monáe said, “I just don’t see myself as a woman, solely — I feel all of my energy. I feel like God is so much bigger than the ‘he’ or the ‘she.’”
The artist, who goes by she/her and they/them pronouns, said “I will always stand with Black women. But I just see everything that I am, beyond the binary.”
Monáe’s anthology, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, dropped in April 2022. The sci-fi and afrofuturism-based novel includes short stories by Monáe and five female or non-binary identifying writers.
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