28 days --- 56 ways to be Young, Gifted and Black: LadyAshley Gregory

How do you spend your days?

9 to 5 I work in the for a company to find people jobs. I spend my days interviewing people so they can find employment that is the best fit for them. Outside of my job my passion and dedication is working to head my support group QTPOC:STL. Here I work to provide a safer space for queer and trans people of color to talk about our lived experiences. I teach racial bias training and sometimes help with trans 101 training. I meditate each evening and enjoy going to conferences that foster social justice and anti-oppression initiatives. I mediate each night in front of my Ganesh.

What brings you joy?

My friends who are just as close as family bring me joy, my furbabies bring me joy, dancing around the room by myself brings me joy, music brings me joy, showing personal affection brings me joy, mediating on the shores of Lake Michigan brings me joy, my grandfather and family history brings me joy.

What is liberation to you?

Being my authentic self in a world that tells me my existence should be threatened everyday is liberation . Liberation is finding freedom from the thoughts and constraints of a cis, heteronormative, patriarchal, misogynistic society that I live in through my very existence. Liberation means being free from the isms and phobias (racism, ageism, capitalism, transphobia , biphobia, and homophobia) that plague us. Liberation to me means freedom to just exist in its purest and most authentic form.

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