GOOD TALK WITH BRIA SMITH
Youth Activist Featured in US KIDS
Bria Smith is a 20 year old Junior studying Journalism and Africana Studies at Emerson college. Native to Milwaukee, WI, she started her organizing with black and brown collectives against gun violence. Smith has also mentored and taught young girls safe sex practices and health initiatives. After being crowned Miss Juneteenth in 2017, Smith entered political advocacy and joined the Milwaukee Youth Council as the 6th district representative. Later in 2019, Smith would become President of the council. In 2018, Smith teamed up with the Parkland students and embarked on a two month journey across 25 states to register youth voters and raise consciousness around gun violence. In 2019, Smith became one of the youth board members of March For Our Lives. During the summer of 2020, with the rise of a global pandemic and Black Lives Matter revolution, Smith and a few Milwaukee youth organizers teamed up underneath 50milesmore and Marched 65 miles to their state's capital, Madison. Since then, Smith has focused her political advocacy around Abolition Thought theory, gun violence prevention and the liberation of Queer folks.