January 13, 2016
M artin L uther K ing J r .
2016 special edition
Page 19
Making Black Lives Matter
C ontinued froM P age 13
force, which makes it harder for
them to change or grow.”
Hofstein came to a place
where she felt like white suprem-
acy was a common enemy for all
people.
“If white people don’t know
their own history, if they don’t
understand oppression and what
they are doing wrong or what
their ancestors did or how this
country was made, they won’t
be able to correct their own mis-
takes or establish connections
with other cultures either,” she
says.
Providing education and in-
formation to minority groups
through PFLAG is a form of ac-
tivism she wanted to get behind.
She joined the budding black
chapter in 2013 and has since be-
come the group’s co-director.
She has worked with Portland
Parks & Recreation to bring pro-
grams for queer youth to the city,
providing safe spaces to gather
and a social network that will
advocate for them on a range of
Photo by o livia o livia /t he P ortland o bserver
issues from bullying to higher Leila Hofstein, who moved to Portland in 2006, has a passion for queer youth and helping them get
education.
the resources they need as they grow into the next generation of leaders.
Working with Black Lives
Matter allows her to advocate for
some of the problems facing Af-
rican Americans in Portland and
internationally.
Together with other volun-
teers, the group has started a
women and transfeminine self-
care program that happens on a
reoccurring basis, called “Self
Care Saturdays,”and has become
a staple of the general commu-
nity-building and “black joy”
that Black Lives Matter activists
envision for their members and
supporters. Participants meet
at In Other Words bookstore on
Northeast Killingsworth Street.
“There is a lot of work Black
Lives Matter does in the commu-
nity, but this simple act of hold-
ing space for black women to
see themselves as valuable was
a really important step for all of
us to see the kind of strength and
joy we have when we come to-
gether,” says Hofstein. “I have so
much more work to do but this is
one of my accomplishments I am
proud of that makes me feel like
I am walking in the steps of the
activists that came before me and
building on it.”