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Janelle Monáe Highlights LISC in Variety Magazine

In Variety’s 2020 Power of Woman issue, Janelle Monáe voices her support for LISC’s Covid-19 response efforts, specifically for the Small Business Relief Grant program. As Monáe notes, “96% of those grants are going to women-, LGBTQ-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses.”

The excerpt below was originally published:
Janelle Monáe: The Interracial Queer Relationship in ‘Homecoming’ Is ‘The Representation We Need’ Now
by Kate Aurthur, Variety

Janelle Monáe, the musician and actor, has always been political, and during this dreadful year she has been further ignited. Her impassioned activism was front and center even during her opening performance at the Academy Awards: “Tonight, we celebrate all the amazing talent in this room!” Monáe said exultantly to the Oscars audience in February as she sang her song “Come Alive.” “We celebrate all the women who directed phenomenal films. And I’m so proud to stand here as a black queer artist telling stories. Happy Black History Month!”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Monáe is supporting the Local Initiatives Support Corp., a nonprofit organization that serves as an intermediary between donors and those businesses and individuals that need loans and grants to thrive — and these days, to survive.

About LISC, Monáe says: “Because of their urgent response to COVID-19, with the LISC Small Business Recovery Fund, they are anticipated to provide close to 1,000 cash grants of up to $10,000 — 96% of those grants are going to women-, LGBTQ-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses.”

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