Editor’s Notes: On Black History Month 2021

An inside look, just for A+ members, from Autostraddle's editors on the process, struggles, and surprises of working on what you're reading on the site. We learn so much from this work before it ever even makes it to your eyes; now you can, too!

This is my third year editing Autostraddle’s Black History Month series. I began planning my first one just a few weeks after I started full-time as an Associate Editor. I was looking back on that time this morning, hoping to be "inspired" about what to say today, and found this:
“It’s my favorite holiday. Maybe it sounds strange to you to call Black History Month a holiday. After all, there’s no Santa Claus coming down the tree or an Easter Bunny bringing baskets. No ‘day after’ sale on...

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen is Autostraddle's Editor-in-Chief and a Black Puerto Rican femme/inist writer. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. There were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. You can find her on twitter, @carmencitaloves.

Carmen has written 692 articles for us.