Reintroducing Myself

As I introduce myself to new networks, communities, people, I have recently looked at my bio and yawned. Who did I write this boring bio for?

As a Black woman in the environmental sector, I have ALWAYS had to prove myself. I have had to defend my right to be in these spaces and to have a voice in conversations. I’m realizing that my bio has been an extension of that. It has been me, signaling to white people/institutions that I, too, have worked at the organizations and done the things that make me “qualified”. It’s exhausting to live and perform for the “white gaze”. It also isn’t getting me any closer to the reality in which I, as a Black woman, can thrive and not just survive. I want to take advantage of this moment of disruption, rethinking, and reckoning to reintroduce myself to myself. To give nods to the people who guide my work, how I want to create, and what moves me.

My name is Grace Anderson (she|her) and I live in Ohlone Territory in Oakland, California. I am a network weaver, dreamer, and strategist working at the intersection of racial, healing, and environment justice. I am guided by Walida Imarisha’s push to sculpt reality from my dreams, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectional framework, bell hook’s revolutionary love, and Nina Simone’s lyrics.

I live in Ohlone Territory in Oakland, California. I am a network weaver, dreamer, and strategist working at the intersection of racial, healing, and environment justice. I am guided by Walida Imarisha’s push to sculpt reality from my dreams, Kimberly Crenshaw’s intersectional framework, bell hook’s revolutionary love, and Nina Simone’s lyrics.

I believe in redistributing power and resources to advance racial and social justice. I strive to connect those most impacted by social and racial inequities to the resources needed to catalyze change. I have moved beyond “DEI” initiatives, instead I am pushing our sector to invest in Black, Indigenous, and people of color leaders and organizations with fewer questions asked.

I am eager to collaborate on developing and implementing strategies which center those with identities that our society marginalizes. I want to create and facilitate opportunities to center healing justice and community care for Black people. I want resources and investments in my community that go beyond survival and support our dreams and imagination.

From climbing the granite walls of the Cirque of Towers in the Wind River Range, to pedaling solo along Highway 1, and repeatedly getting lost as I bike around Oakland, I am a lover of adventure through and through. I have always preferred the mountains over the ocean and will choose reading over socializing. I build community through food, bicycles, books, and have a newfound plant obsession.

That’s who I am.