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SEPTEMBER 2020 ISSUE
Marcus Rashford & Adwoa Aboah Lead An Inspiring Army Of Activists On Vogue’s September Cover
3 AUGUST 2020
It was, more than anything else, the feeling of positivity that took me by surprise. It was 3 June, and on a warm, grey lunchtime in central London – mask on, distance kept – I stepped outside my home to head to the Black Lives Matter rally in Hyde Park. For all the obvious reasons, it had been an especially fraught few days for Black people around the world; a fraught year in a fraught decade in a fraught life. Yet, somehow, this particular day took me from feeling lost in despair to experiencing something that felt an awful lot like hope.
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One of the more joyful phenomena of the past years has been seeing how, in the face of what can seem like ever-escalating injustice, activism has re-emerged from the margins and taken hold of the mainstream. I have loved seeing younger generations fire up older generations again, seeing “social justice” go from a term that elicited a yawn and an eye-roll to embedding itself in our daily lives, and giving rise to people using the platforms of a new era to essentially say, “Enough is enough.”
To be in London early this summer was to witness those voices erupting from the screens of our smartphones and pouring out on to the streets. Outrage for George Floyd – a father whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in late May ignited anti-racism protests around the world – brought us together to march in the name of justice. As every Black person knows, police brutality happens all the time, it’s just not always recorded, and rarely at such horrifying length. Yet with all of us in lockdown, there was nowhere else for our eyes to go but to watch as Mr Floyd was suffocated.
The special pull-out September 2020 cover features the “faces of hope”.
The need to protest was overwhelming. As Hyde Park began to fill, I started to feel the energy of generations uniting, of coming together to stand in solidarity. It was the most peaceful experience. It felt like all of London was there – Black, brown, white – as people sat on the ground listening to speeches, chanting in unison and holding signs aloft. The actor John Boyega spoke brilliantly, as did organisers such as Naomi Smith – one of the groundswell of women who shaped and led so many protests this summer. It was painful, and only the beginning. But it was freeing, too.
The protests that day and in the days that followed have come to define 2020 as the year the world woke up, with names such as Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Shukri Abdi being heard around the globe. The BLM marches in the US amounted to the largest movement in American history. This year has often seemed like a dark time for humanity, but it has also marked itself as a golden era for activism. From climate change to child poverty, domestic abuse to the struggle for democracy, people will no longer be silenced. In the fight against injustice, the power of the collective voice is being heard.
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The 20 Remarkable Activists On Vogue’s September Cover Are Ready To Change The World
BY AFUA HIRSCH
This month, all international Vogues, of which there are currently an impressive 26, are uniting to dedicate their September covers (and more, but I’ll get to that shortly) to one shared theme: hope. I knew instantly and deeply believed in what British Vogue’s interpretation needed to be – an ode to the extraordinary voices, old and young, who in this difficult year have devoted their energies to fighting for a fairer society.
And so, on our special fold-out September cover, you will find 20 inspirational faces: from spearhead campaigners for the Black Lives Matter movement, such as Patrisse Cullors; leading young feminists and anti-racism activists, such as Tamika D. Mallory; as well as straight-up legends such as Prof Angela Davis and the incredible Alice Wong. There are also those – the model Joan Smalls and the actor Jesse Williams, for instance – who have used their platforms to effect change in their own industries, often risking censure and derision in the process.
The special pull-out September 2020 cover features the “faces of hope”.
At 22, Marcus Rashford is a shining example of how to harness influence for good. When, earlier this year, the Manchester United and England footballer leveraged his enormous popularity to lobby the government to fund free school meals for vulnerable children during lockdown and beyond, he not only brought about a policy U-turn but united a country. Adwoa Aboah, model and leading mental health activist, travelled to Marcus’s garden in Manchester for their cover shot, and, in The Time Is Now, on page 218, the pair feature alongside 37 other phenomenal campaigners – photographed in 13 cities on four continents – who are shaping our times. At its core, this story is our show of thanks, as well as a rallying cry for the future. As writer Afua Hirsch puts it in her accompanying report, “It is a year that has elevated the visibility of legendary figures from those past battles, and ushered in a new generation.”
Hope abounds. Which brings me to this month’s second international Vogue initiative: a global portfolio of moving images encapsulating the idea of optimism – including a group of schoolchildren from Poland and a virologist from Germany, as well as images from India, Thailand, Greece and more. I was very taken with American Vogue’s submission, a mood-boosting passage from Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo. At British Vogue, we dispatched photographer Alasdair McLellan to take a portrait of the freshly minted national hero and newly knighted centenarian, Captain Sir Thomas Moore, who raised so many millions for the NHS with his sponsored walks earlier this year. How pleasing to think Captain Tom’s photograph will be published in numerous editions of Vogue around the world.
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Meet Misan Harriman, The BLM Protest Photographer Who Captured Vogue’s September Cover
26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020
This issue, I am also delighted to welcome to the Vogue family the fiercely talented actor, musician and writer Riz Ahmed, who joins us as a contributing editor. On page 107, you will find his poignant first essay, about what he lost and learnt in lockdown. Elsewhere, author Matt Haig shares a much-needed guide to positive thinking, actor Jodie Turner-Smith reflects on new motherhood, Gwyneth Paltrow offers a happy blueprint for modern families, and Tayari Jones leads a roster of authors writing about their hopes for the future. All this and The Vogue 25, our annual list of the most influential women in Britain, from the Queen to all those breaking boundaries in fashion, science, politics, the arts and beyond.
When all is said and done, it’s clear that 2020 will be remembered as a tough year, but also as a moment of necessary change. One thing is for certain. The future starts now.
© Misan Harriman