Uplifting black voices in a spoken word poem collaboration

SRT grantee Fine Acts collaborated with award-winning Black trans slam poet and LGBTQ activist Lee Mokobe on “Surviving Blackness”, a spoken word poem and video calling for support of Black Lives Matter. The poem describes systemic racism towards Black people and Mokobe’s personal experiences and subsequent lessons from childhood to adulthood.

In a continuous commitment to amplify Black artists’ voices, Fine Acts used fonts for the video by Vocal Type, a protest type foundry uplifting creatives of colour. Each typeface highlights a piece of history from a specific underrepresented race, ethnicity, or gender, from the Women’s Suffrage Movement to the Civil Rights Movement.

The project was launched in July 2020, already has over 50,000 views across platforms, and is being widely shared by Black and trans activists alike.