Janelle Monáe

Personal context

Summary

Janelle Monáe is an actor and musician known for Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and a body of music built around Afrofuturism, freedom, and challenges to social boundaries. They have repeatedly spoken and acted on racial justice, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights, including performing at the 2017 Women’s March and delivering a public call to oppose racism, sexism, and homophobia. Monáe has described their work as addressing threats to black women’s and LGBTQ people’s rights, and has publicly identified as non-binary and pansexual.