14 Black Vegan Activists You Should Follow on Instagram
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Countless powerful Black activists are using their social media platforms to speak out against injustice. We’ve compiled a list of 14 vegan Black influencers who are spreading compassion, love, and strength during these difficult times. Be sure to follow them!
Christopher Sebastian
Christopher-Sebastian is a staff writer at Vegan Publishers, a part-time lecturer on speciesism at Columbia University, and a board member of Peace Advocacy Network. Christopher-Sebastian speaks about veganism from a Black, queer, and economic perspective. You can watch many of his talks online on a range of topics, including how to make the animal rights movement more intersectional and why animal rights is also a queer rights issue.
Follow him on Instagram.
Gwenna Hunter
Gwenna Hunter is the founder of Vegans Of LA, a group “celebrating urban vegan pop culture.” She is also a coordinator of community engagement and events for Greater Los Angeles at Vegan Outreach, working to build a kinder community wherever she goes.
Follow her on Instagram.
Tracye McQuirter
Nutritionist, speaker, author, and longtime vegan, Tracye McQuirter has an ever-growing list of accomplishments. It includes directing the nation’s first federally funded community-based vegan nutrition program, serving as policy advisor for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, co-founding the first vegan website by and for African Americans, and co-creating the first-of-its-kind, free African American Vegan Starter Guide.
Follow her on Instagram.
John Lewis
John Lewis—also known as Badass Vegan—is an athlete and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Vegan Smart, a company geared toward Black athletes who are plant-based. Lewis is passionate about helping underrepresented communities through healthy plant-based food. He is also co-directing and co-producing the documentary Hungry for Justice “about food/social justice through the lens of hip hop and urban culture.”
Follow him on Instagram.
Erika Hazel
While Erika Hazel is a full-time school counselor and therapist, she is also a “lifelong foodie” who documents plant-based hotspots in the Bay Area under the name The Bizerkeley Vegan. She is not afraid to speak up and uses her social media platforms as a voice for justice.
Follow her on Instagram.
Ayindé Howell
Chef Ayindé Howell is a restaurant-trained chef and lifelong vegan. He founded iEatGrass to diversify vegan options, help the environment, and bring “more ethically produced food to the market.” His famous vegan Mac & Yease can be found in the hot bars of Whole Foods Market stores in California, Las Vegas, Arizona, Maui, and Oahu.
Follow him on Instagram.
Bryant Terry
Bryant Terry is an award-winning chef, activist, and author dedicated to creating a healthier, kinder, and more sustainable food system. He is a chef in residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora and released his fifth book, Vegetable Kingdom, in February. San Francisco Magazine included Terry in their list of “11 Smartest People in the Bay Area Food Scene,” and business magazine Fast Company counted him among the “9 People Who Are Changing the Future of Food.”
Follow him on Instagram.
Babette Davis
Chef Babette is the owner of LA vegan restaurant Stuff I Eat and co-founder of the Love Ur Age Project, which promotes successful aging through a healthy plant-based lifestyle. When she isn’t cooking up a storm in Inglewood, you can find her advocating vegan lunches in LA schools.
Follow her on Instagram.
Monk
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwNdGyjpUPw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Monk is a vegan bodybuilder, meditation instructor, personal trainer, and “professional spreader of love.” Monk credits the power of meditation for not just lifting him out of a destructive lifestyle but leading him to veganism. He shares, “I became reconnected to all life and didn’t want to do any harm to any other beings.”
Follow him on Instagram.
Lemel Durrah
Lemel Durrah started his company—Compton Vegan—as a way to promote healthy eating in inner city Los Angeles. Durrah offers tasty comfort foods like jackfruit ribs and vegan chicken that appeal to the broader community. While his initial goal was just to have a healthy restaurant in Compton, he now dreams of putting a Compton Vegan in every inner city across the country.
Follow him on Instagram.
Omowale Adewale
Founder of the first Black VegFest, Omowale Adewale is a social justice activist working to address socioeconomic and political issues of the Black and Latinx communities while ensuring inclusiveness. In an interview with Mercy For Animals about Black VegFest, Adewale explained:
I don’t try to be perfect. I strive to be consistent connecting the struggles of all animals globally, and that includes humans. And it will take the work of activists around the world developing a more compassionate system.
Follow him on Instagram.
Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis is a British singer-songwriter and philanthropist known for her animal advocacy. A longtime vegetarian turned vegan, Lewis has joined forces with various animal rights organizations, including Mercy For Animals.
Follow her on Instagram.
Tabitha Brown
Known for her comforting personality and tasty recipes, Tabitha Brown went vegan after suffering from chronic headaches and fatigue. She was first inspired to embark on a 30-day plant-based challenge after watching the documentary What the Health. By the end of the month, she saw vast improvements in her health and decided to change her lifestyle for good. Today, she posts inspiring videos on her social media pages and has won the hearts of countless vegans and non-vegans around the world.
Follow her on Instagram.
Mýa
American R&B and hip-hop singer Mýa is a longtime vegan and animal rights activist. Mýa is also outspoken about other injustices, recently posting a statement on social media about George Floyd’s murder:
Again and again, this never seems to end and nothing will bring back the lives of our UNARMED, unproblematic brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, family, friends from these blatant hate crimes. My heart goes out to these families suffering the unthinkable.
Follow her on Instagram.
Looking for more ways to support Black Americans? Follow organizations and movements committed to racial justice, such as Black Lives Matter and SURJ. You can also educate yourself further by listening to Black voices, reading books and articles from Black authors, and sharing their work with others. Together, we can create a more compassionate and just world for everyone.