Membership
Circle

Are you a new or long-time Black feminist leader or activist?

Do you believe Black feminisms gets us free? Are you looking for a community of Black people who are interested in liberation to learn and grow with? If so, our community of Black feminist leaders is the hub for you. Black Feminist Future (BFF) is a member-centered organization and our members help inform our work, campaigns and initiatives. At BFF, we’re centering leadership development, community care, and joy in order to build the political and social power that we need to win changes in our lives, community, and beyond.

Belong. Build. Lead.

Members Circle is Black Feminist Future’s membership community for Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people.

Why a Circle?

A circle has no top and no bottom. Every level of Members Circle holds up the others, and we share responsibility for this community. Once you’re in the circle, you’re in. Your place in the circle is yours until you choose to leave, because we believe in and practice consent in all things.

A circle also brings us back to where we started. When we marked ten years of Black Feminist Future, we named our theme with Gwendolyn Brooks’s words: “We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Members Circle is how we live that out together.

Why Join?

Members Circle gives you a community that learns together, organizes together, and decides together. This is an opportunity to practice our politics and build something powerful together.

We Believe:

  • Liberation Comes Through the Collective.
    Black Feminist Future exists to build power. Our mission is to cultivate a politicized collective of Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people who are connected, activated, and leading strategic change.
  • Our History Shapes Our Future.
    In 2021, we launched Constellation, BFF’s first membership program, alongside our HIVEs, the local chapters that gave our members a home base. Five years of organizing, learning, and building together brought us here. The BFF Members Circle honors that history and carries it forward.
  • Clear Pathways to Power.
    Membership at BFF moves with you. From Collective to Beloved to Kin to Comrade, each level reflects a deepening relationship to this community and a growing responsibility within it. Your membership at BFF also fortifies your ability to build and sustain power in your community. Every level unlocks real benefits, deeper political education, leadership development, and governance pathways that grow alongside your commitment.
  • Our Dues Sustain Our Liberation.
    Paying dues is a direct investment in BFF’s sustainability, our campaigns, and keeping our spaces accessible to the people who need them most. It is also a way we establish and demonstrate collective care. As the Combahee River Collective wrote in 1977, “the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us.” Membership dues fund the infrastructure behind everything from Kitchen Table Kickbacks to Member Congress to the campaigns BFF takes on.
  • Members Belong in the Room Where Decisions Are Made.
    BFF members shape our direction. Through the Member Council, Member Congress, and the Member Governance Body, members lead, vote, and decide. Growing your leadership at BFF creates the opportunities to vote on operating budgets, organizing direction, national campaigns, and how we show up during election season.

This space is intended for those who experience life and violence at the nexus of gender and Blackness. Those who walk through the world holding marginalized identities. The Members Circle is our place to vision and work towards liberation in our everyday lives through the lens of Black feminisms.

Grow With Us!

As you deepen your commitment to BFF through our campaigns and programs, you grow your level of leadership within the Members Circle

  • Collective (We belong here)
  • Beloved (We help build this community)
  • Kin (We organize with and through this community)
  • Comrade (We hold significant responsibility for this collective)

Every level includes exclusive membership swag and benefits, like discounts on BFF events.

What We Ask

  • Complete the application and commit to our Meridians
  • Attend orientation.
  • Pay your dues. They sustain our campaigns, keep our spaces open, and showcase how we practice collective care.
  • Build Power With Us. Through our programs and campaigns, we’re demonstrating the journey to a liberatory future, where Black feminisms gets us free. 
—ASSATA SHAKUR

Benefits & Fees

As a member, you will get access to these benefits:

AS A MEMBER, YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO:

  • Reviewing and provide feedback around member centered content
  • Informing the direction of committees and work groups (Campaign Action, political education, consciousness building, community building/community care)
  • Weighing in on what trainings, curriculums, convenings, community building, hives, and campaigns/action should be prioritized
  • Co-design the annual member meeting
  • Serving as members on the governance bodies of BFF i.e. advisory boards and steering committees
  • Sharing our strategic plan and go into deep study about the components for clarity and understanding
  • Guiding the development of our political agenda
  • Creating a pipeline for members to become board members, staff, etc
  • Contributing to the growth and development of BFF and community of Black feminists

AS A MEMBER, YOU AGREE TO:

Training and Skill Building

We equip our members with necessary organizing and leadership tools, analysis, skills, training, and a community of Black feminists to take action in their daily lives, local communities, and on the national level. Black Feminist Future curates liberation-centered materials and spaces exclusively for BFF members. These offerings help our members develop the necessary skills, analysis, and practice to imagine Black feminist solutions and set Black feminist agendas.

Membership
FAQ

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