Janelle Monáe received widespread acclaim for her role in Glass Onion and, more recently, dropped “Float,” her boastful, joyous February single. Monáe seemingly had the time of her life while preparing for and participating in this year’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game despite not quite living up to a self-induced Allen Iverson comparison.
And she wants more people to have access to such positive experiences and opportunity.
On Wednesday, March 22, it was announced that Monáe is entering a partnering with the Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund “to expand the programs of her non-profit, Fem The Future, whose mission is to build a fem-forward future by creating opportunities for under-resourced girls and non-binary youth of color in music, the arts, and education,” per press release.
The partnership has been kickstarted by a $150,000 grant, serving “as a pilot for longer-term collaboration.”
“In partnership with the Social Justice Fund, we’re giving girls the chance to own their power — and change the world,” Monáe said in a statement. “The SJF grant will support Fem The Future as it develops programming for girls and non-binary youth and shines light on their talent — helping them build confidence, expand educational opportunities and make informed decisions about their bodies, their lives and their futures. A beautiful future begins with uplifting the next generation of artists, activists and freedom fighters.”
In January, Monáe was honored with the SheHer Award at the Critics Choice Awards. Her acceptance speech is relevant to Wednesday’s news.
Janelle Monae started their speech at the Critics Choice Awards by clarifying that their pronouns are “she/her, they/them and free-ass motherfucker”
https://t.co/5xWfo8qEQo
— Joseph Lamour
(@lamour) January 16, 2023
“I’m Janelle Monáe, and my pronouns are she/her, they/them, and free-ass motherf*cker,” she said, adding (as relayed by People), “I try to make an effort in my work … to highlight the ones who have been pushed to the margins of society, who’ve been outcast or relegated to ‘the other.’ This is a deeply personal choice for me because I grew up to working-class parents: My mother was a janitor, my father was a trash man, and my grandmother was a sharecropper in Aberdeen, Mississippi.”
Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.