TOP 5: GAMECHANGERS
game chang·er
noun
noun: gamechanger
an event, idea, or procedure that affects a significant shift in the current manner of doing or thinking about something.
"a potential game changer that could revitalize the entire US aerospace industry"
Definitions from Oxford Languages
Though the “official” def doesn’t say PERSON! I’m here to say it! Also, can I get a grammar ruling? The definition from the net had effects instead of what I corrected (thanks to the modern Clippy : blue squiggly underlines & MY BRAIN) to affects. What’s appropriate?
The GAMECHANGERS that I’m here today to celebrate and fangirl over -- most you’ll know and some I hope you’ll want to know. This may come as a shock to some of you (none of you), but this list is ALL WOMEN. ALL ARTISTS (of varying mediums). ALL COOLER THAN COOL. ALL LEADERS OF MONUMENTAL SHIFTS (namely for my life, but I’d argue the world) AND SOCIAL JUSTICE in their own ways. I’m really trying to bury this lead buttttt, I’ll give it up, ya’ll know what’s coming next.
ALL BLACK WOMEN!
DING-DONG! Without further ado my TOP 5 : GAMECHANGERS
1. ANGELA FUCKING DAVIS!
I have almost no words but expletives and feelings. Angela Y. Davis is a visceral experience for me, to this day. It’s hard to extract my gay from my gamechanger feels about this extraordinary human THAT I can’t believe this world still has. I still remember the moment I saw that fucking look, smoking a cigarette, in a ghatdamn jail cell, that look! In total control, has all the power, the start of the most magnificent reign of thought provoking, reckoning force for GOOD! SO FUCKING HOTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!! My heart stopped. She’s been a compass ever since. The coolest cool, made ever cooler by her continued investment and belief in radical change. My heart and loins are both on fire. She deserves better than my ig AF TOP 5, so please, do us all a favor and just serve yourself up some Prof. Angela Y. Davis via her autobio (instigated by Toni Morrison), her book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, any of her extensive and continuing work and writings on civil rights and social justice.
#SWOONING4EVER
2. PHOEBE LYNN OBAMA ROBINSON
Pheebs (PHOEBE ROBINSON) is an excellent next up on the list because that little moment up there we all had... that’s a chip off the ole block. I don’t know where to even start though! I hope that ya’ll have some knowledge of Phoebe Robinson, cause again, I’m not here to offer anything super constructive (see above). I’m here to fangirl out. This woman is a true gift, A NATIONAL TREASURE! Her natural ease and Blaria vibe (Black Daria) flows through with humor, hard truths and getting your head around the bigger picture without totally miring yourself in the muck of the work to be done or undone. One of her newest enterprise’s is the podcast Black Fraiser. The epi (abrevs are also courtesy of this queen) Phoebe & Ronny Chieng Are Your Career Counselors has been echoing around in my head non stop! and it’s so damn validating, please check out! Esp. if you’re feeling stuck! Her insta is worth being on soosh meeds (Pheebism) for and her books/audiobooks + 2 other pods (Sooooo Many White Guys & 2 Dope Queens) get me through many a migraine. From her U2 obsession to her heart warming friendship with the one and only Mai, Phoebe is a true ig, but wholly endearing experience that I want to know forever. Also babe is also shoving that needle forward with her imprint, Tiny Reparations and her personal activism. YQY! Yo!
3. LIZZO & SWEET BABY DBIRD (SBD)
It only feels another natural segway into numero THREE! THE ONE AND ONLY LIZZO! & for me there’s no LIZZO or PHEEBS without one qween who OG’d my intro to these FORCES! Sweet Baby DBird aka Danielle Zimmerer! #gamechanger4LYFE
LIZZO has not only normalized self love and incited the shifting of societal perception for BIG BLACK WOMEN, she’s changed the GAME! Through the ever universally accessible medium of music, she has gotten to the hearts of everyone ( -- much like music of 1997, just sayin’). She’s broken through, changed all the rules. #nevergoingbackagain
Her powerfully real and candid soosh meeds, like Pheebs, makes it worth participating, JUST a lil bit. Infinite grats to SBDBird for showing me a whole new world. I do not believe I would be the person I am now without this squad. & That would be a fucking bummer.
4. DOMINIQUE JACKSON
Dominique Jackson, aka Elektra Abundance in the series POSE. First off watch that, (POSE). It is a #gamechanger in itself! IMO of course! It was her Defining Moments with Ozy that really endeared me to her. The prospect that there were innumerable moments in her life that we could have been without her force...HATE IT! It only makes me ache for all the Trans forces we’ve lost and continue to lose, needlessly, horribly, unjustly.
I’m not crying, you’re crying! Dominique Jackson, the potential of content with you in it is fucking THRILLING! I can’t wait to see how you light the world on fire with your gifts! I’m manifesting a tarot reader character with a cool ass character arch...omg LOST GIRL reboot?!!!!!!!
5. Tenea D. Johnson
I’ll try not to get too gushy here. I think Tenea is a magnificent magician of words, sounds and humor. The longevity of her work and the ever nearing feeling of the possibilities of it being close to reality— is nerve wracking! But she always seems to show another way. One of her latest of many works (almost all self published) otw, Blueprints for Better Worlds is my reigning favorite. It gives us this glimpse of what a future for humanity might look like and how we can, without being too on the nose, make blueprints for better worlds. This time of human existence is negging us to think differently, more resourcefully, compassionately, sustainably more meaningfully. Tenea never gives too much away, opting instead to leave breadcrumbs for the curious and intrepid. A reward of sorts for digging deeper. A hope for purposeful engagement. This clever ingenuity is a thread that feels woven throughout her many works...there’s always something we can’t see, and it may or may not ever get revealed. This unique moment Tenea creates in her writing, audio and even visual works always makes me come back for more. If curiosity doesn’t hook you, her voice will (get a taste). Needless to say I NEED to be on the pre-order for the audio book of Blueprints for Better Worlds.
Full disclosure Tenea is a close personal friend and there’s a litany of reasons for me, she’s on this list other than the numerous reasons above, but in true TDJ fashion, it’s nunyabusiness.
