Janaya Future Khan
The leader we have all been waiting for.
Janaya Future Khan is the International Ambassador for Black Lives Matter, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and Program Director for Color of Change, a leading civil rights organisation in the US. Also known as ‘Future’, on hearing them speak you’ll know exactly why, for the name denotes a promise, a hope, a wish.
Speaking with Janaya upon them being recognised with the GAY TIMES Honour for International Community Trailblazer was privilege. There are few people I hear speak with the same power, intention and resonance. Janaya is like a mind-altering drug that you’ll be forever grateful to for the permanent shift in your psyche that you’re about to experience. The leader that we have all been waiting for has arrived. I hope you’re sitting comfortably.
How would you describe yourself and your work?
I understand my role and the role of storytelling in this particular moment and the necessity to step off script. We’re all born into a script and especially those of us on a spectrum of gender, sexuality and race, we know what it’s like to step off script. If I were to accept the script that I was born into, I would have accepted my own destruction. The script that I was born into for a Black girl who grew up poor, queer, potentially non-binary. If I had accepted the stories about people like me in this society,
