Minneapolis city council president Andrea Jenkins made national headlines in 2017 after becoming the country’s first out Black trans person elected to public office. In 2022 she created history again when voted council president. The writer, performance artist, poet and transgender activist will talk about her experiences in activism and the importance of centering love as a motivating force in social justice work.
Communities of Care: Love & Social Justice
Andrea Jenkins in Conversation
Andrea Jenkins
Educator, Poet, Writer and City Council member
Andrea Jenkins (she/her) is a writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Jenkins moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota in 1979.She worked as a Vocational Counselor for Hennepin County government, for a decade. Jenkins worked as a staff member on the Minneapolis City Council for 12 years before beginning work as curator of the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota's Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.
She holds a Masters Degree in Community Development from Southern New Hampshire University, a MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and a Bachelors Degrees in Human Services from Metropolitan State University. She is a nationally and internationally recognized writer and artist, a 2011 Bush Fellow to advance the work of transgender inclusion, and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. In 2018 she completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University.
