Alicia Garza
Principal at Black Futures Lab and author of "The Purpose of Power"
Liz Dozier
Founder and CEO, Chicago Beyond
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
Alicia Garza’s honest and original narrative The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart is a twenty-first-century organizer’s manifesto that draws on this generation’s particular strengths and challenges us create a new paradigm for change. It is an essential guide to building the type of movements that can address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers — one of the creators of Black Lives Matter.
In 2013, Ms. Garza wrote what she calls “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. She wrote: Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. Coupled with the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter is the hashtag heard round the world. Yet long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Ms. Garza spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about how to come together when things around us are falling apart. She offers reflections on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still waking can inspire and activate more and more people to join the fight for the world we all deserve.
Ms. Garza is the Principal at the Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Fund, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, strategy and partnerships director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and host of the Lady Don’t Take No podcast.
Ms. Garza will be interviewed by Liz Dozier, Founder and CEO of Chicago Beyond, an impact investor that backs the fight against the inequities pervasive in Chicago’s communities. Since its inception, Chicago Beyond has invested more than $35 million in local nonprofit organizations and community leaders that fight for all youth to achieve their full potential. Because there is no single barrier to equity, Chicago Beyond invests in everything from education, to youth safety, to health and wellness, and beyond. Ms. Dozier’s work has been featured in How Children Succeed by Paul Tough (FAN ’12 and ’19), and CNN followed her career as a turnaround principal at Fenger High School (2008-15), at the time known as one of the most violent and underperforming schools in Chicago, as a part of its 2014 eight-episode docu-series, Chicagoland.
This event suitable for youth 12+
REGISTRATION REQUIRED for all FAN events. This event will be recorded and available later on our website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- Baker Demonstration School
- Beacon Academy
- Chicago Beyond
- Compass Health Center
- Connections for the Homeless
- Evanston Scholars
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Family Service Center
- Family Service of Glencoe
- Foundation 65
- Fusion Academy
- Kenilworth D38
- Loyola Academy
- Loyola University Chicago School of Law
- Near North Montessori School
- Pope John XXIII School
- Porter-Gaud Parent Association
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Rogers Park Montessori School
- Roycemore School
- St. Athanasius School
- Stevenson High School D125
- Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)

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