Dr. Jaimee A. Swift, Black feminist political theorist, journalist, and professor, founded Black Women Radicals in 2018 when her graduate school coursework wasn’t enough. The Philadelphia native pursued her Ph.D. in the hopes of learning more about the political histories, thought, and contributions of Black women and gender-expansive people. When that didn’t happen, she founded Black Women Radicals, a Black feminist advocacy organisation that has since gone on to launch the School for Black Feminist Politics. Swift says, “[The School] de-center[s] academia as the authority of Black feminist politics and expand[s] the frame of reference of Black politics through the power of Black feminisms”. 

During our interview, we talk more about her Black feminist origins and imagination. She shares her experience fundraising with Off-White founder Virgil Abloh and Black queer feminist organiser Trinice McNally for a physical location for The School, what she’s enjoyed most about her journey as founder of Black Women Radicals, and why Black women shouldn’t let anyone defer their dreams. 

Six Black Women Writers Leading Feminist Thought in South Africa

Who are the radical Black women who have watered you and shaped how you walk and move in the world?

I think a lot of people. I think of the women in my life, like my grandmother and mother, who have shaped me. They were my first examples of what it means to be radical Black women. Whereas they may not identify as being a feminist, they embody the characteristics of Black feminisms. There's an embodiment of Black feminist politic and praxis. And I'm just so thankful for them because they've traversed and survived and thrived through violence and abuse. They persevered and they taught me to walk in a practice of love and community. I'm grateful for them. I'm grateful for everyday Black women that I see in community spaces. We often idolize leaders privileged throughout history, but it’s really the everyday Black women in our lives, in their radical existence and resistance, that we should praise.

Your storytelling is very Black and deeply political, decolonial, transnational, and feminist - counter to mainstream media outlets. When did you make the conscious decision to report and write on Black communities, specifically women and gender-expansive folks?

I have always used writing as a tool to express myself, and throughout the years that [sic] I'veI've realised writing was a way for me to not only talk about what was going on personally but also around the world politically. Initially, I was trying to write for major publications, and they would either reject my work outright, or they would accept my work and whiten it down. There were also some Black outlets I would write for that were uncomfortable with my work. It was too much, too political, or they didn't want to talk about the Black trans communities or Black gender-expansive activists. I grew tired of that. And I grew tired of people thinking that we have to wait on these major white and Black-owned outlets to tell our own stories. 

Even during my graduate program, where I was studying Black politics, the coursework didn't discuss Black women, which is a problem. So I decided to start something that centred the lives of Black women and gender-expansive people from a very transnational, interdisciplinary, decolonial perspective. There are all these histories and movements and leaders and activists, and just everyday people who shaped our politics and they're left on the sidelines or erased or siloed. That is white supremacist revisionist history. Black folks can be co-opted by that as well, when we only focus on Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X), and not Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, for example. We need to talk about women like Josina Machel, a Mozambican revolutionary and freedom fighter. Her life and the lives of women like her matter.

While I don't necessarily identify as an activist, I do identify as a political and cultural custodian whose works are to go back and get the histories and stories, in the spirit of Sankofa, of those who have been erased and siloed because patriarchy and misogynoir have tried to quell what we've done. Guess what? We are here and always have been and will be here in the future. You can't get rid of us. We don't die. We multiply. 

Reflecting on your journey with Black Women Radicals, what parts do you reflect on for joy and encouragement? Which moments have you learned and grown from the most?

Oh my gosh, it's being in community with amazingly talented, wonderful, powerhouse Black feminists from around the world. That's joy for me. The joy is also knowing that there are Black feminists around the world and that even as a Black American, a Black woman situated in the United States, the joy to me is learning how to decentre myself and learning from Black feminist communities globally. I feel joy learning from Afro-Italian feminists. I feel joy learning from Black feminists in Brazil and Paris and Ghana. 

There are so many Black feminists who are doing the work, and oftentimes we don't know their names. I feel joy centring them. Audre Lorde said, “Without community, there is no liberation”. The ultimate joy, for me, is to learn and to grow and to build community with Black feminists from around the world who are doing dope things and changing structures and creating new realities and creating new possibilities and just revelling in Black feminist imagination. There are no words to describe the Black feminist imagination. Nothing like it! And I get joy from people being excited to learn from Black Women Radicals. I'm so grateful. 

Shifting now to your work and praxis as a political theorist, what drove you to study and analyse, critique and condemn anti-Blackness within politics and government? What have you learned from your extensive studies of the Americas, in particular, and how does that influence your work with Black Women Radicals and The School for Black Feminist Politics?

It started when I entered into my graduate program. The cannon of Black politics was limited to American electoral politics and voting behaviour and neglected the contributions and influence of women and gender-expansive people. We didn’t, for example, discuss Pauli Murray, the gender legal scholar who was the brainchild behind Brown vs the Board of Education. We didn’t discuss Anna Julia Cooper, Jewel Prestage, or Cathy Cohen. 

I grew tired of the exclusion and decided to create Black Women Radicals to focus on women’s and gender-expansive people’s radical activism in Black politics throughout time-space and place. The School for Black Feminist Politics was created to de-centre academia as the authority of Black feminist politics and expand the frame of reference of Black politics through the power of Black feminisms. We're going to talk about sex work. We're going to talk about colourism. We're going to talk about Black Feminisms in France. We're going to talk about creative fiction. We're going to talk about all these different themes and topics because it expands the frame of reference of Black politics and Black feminisms through different lenses. And we need that.    

Upile Chisala on Poetry As Medicine

The School for Black Feminist Politics was recently founded in 2020 and has done a magnificent job documenting and sharing neglected Black feminist histories, political memories, and productions. Can you share personal highlights and moments of joy related to the School’s founding and growth, including the “I Support Black Women” Campaign, and how you envision the School’s future?

I started the School in October 2020 and didn't know how popular it would be. Everything that Black Women Radicals does, including the school, I want it to be accessible. For the School specifically, I invite and pay Black feminist educators, organisers, scholars, and teachers to lead free teachings about Black feminisms, Black feminist political thought and histories.

To see so much growth in less than a year, to see how excited people are about the teachings and how excited people are when they are invited to lead a teach-in. People signing up for the teach-ins has been such a powerful experience because it speaks to Black feminist community in the Black feminist imagination.

I've learned more from interviewing Black feminists than I’ve learned throughout (and leading up to) my doctoral studies. What does that mean? It means that we don't have to wait on these power structures to talk about us. We don't have to wait on anybody to revel in our greatness. We do that ourselves, and we can do that with one another.

The School was also chosen to be a part of an amazing campaign, the I Support Black Women campaign, started by Trinice McNally and Virgil Abloh, the founder and creative director of Off-White. The campaign features and supports the work of nine Black feminists of all different backgrounds, but I feel really blessed as the campaign is supporting the opening of a physical location for the School for Black Feminist Politics.

As Black women, we are told our dreams don't matter. We're told that we cannot imagine outside the confines of oppression. We're told that we have to stand five steps back behind. The support for the School has really made me believe that I cannot allow anyone to defer my dreams, not even the white supremacist power structure. I can. We can. Black women are building and dreaming and doing things that we never thought we could possibly do. We do it every single day.

I'm imagining something beyond my wildest dreams. I just don't want it to be a hub. I want it to be a community centre, an exhibit space where people can come and see themselves, a library where people come and read about Black women and gender-expansive leaders. There are thousands of books about us, but I want them to be housed at the School. I want Black people from all ages and all backgrounds and of all abilities to come and see themselves in the space where they feel safe, welcome, seen, and heard. That's what I want for the School, not anything else or anything less. I want to highlight Black women who are doing the work, who may not be as well known but who are still doing critical work. That’s the spirit behind the School, and I hope it becomes the ultimate reality. 

I would like to thank Black feminists of the past, present, and future for their work because what Black Women Radicals does is only one iteration of this long legacy of what Black women and gender-expansive people have done, do, and will continue to do throughout history and time. We stand on the shoulders of giants. It's important that we go back to that. I think if we want to achieve true liberation, we have to go back and look at those strategies and initiatives and organizations so we can build on them, position them for transformation, and get where we have to get. Much love to Black women and gender-expansive people around the world, whether they are well known or not, formally educated or not. Thank you for your work because it really shapes what we all do, what I do.