ZAMI, a group for African-American lesbians, will showcase its recent scholarship winners and several community leaders during two events on Saturday.
The group’s 14 scholarship recipients and 10 community activists will be honored during an 11 a.m. brunch. Later that night, at 7:30 p.m., an event toasts just the scholarship winners. Both events are open to the public, though the morning event costs $25.
ZAMI’s Audre Lorde Scholarship Fund was founded in 1995 by board chair Mary Anne Adams. Since then, it has awarded more than $145,000 in scholarships to openly gay and lesbian students of color.
“Many of [the scholarship winners] have survived against the odds; some of them are in constant struggle against the messages from a homophobic society that says they are nothing and nobody and a family that often turns its back,” Adams tells Southern Voice. “We want to be a beacon for them. And in reality, they end up giving us so much more than we could ever give them.”
“[For many], it is the first time they have been affirmed and embraced collectively by a community of loving, supportive folks who are embracing them as they are — awarding them scholarships because they are achieving academically, demonstrating great leadership and working on social justice issues as ‘out’ LGBT scholars,” she says.
Read more about the events and view a list of scholarship recipients and community activists to be honored.
