Her Dream Deferred 2025: Full Event Details

From March 23 to March 30, the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) will host the 11th annual Her Dream Deferred forum, a pivotal event dedicated to addressing the pressing issues that affect Black women, girls, and femmes across the nation. This year, the forum will highlight topics such as police brutality, the ongoing assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the maternal mortality crisis. The week-long series will bring together attendees for thought-provoking discussions, and educational panels, offering a platform to mobilize and organize against the political forces that threaten the rights of Black women nationwide.

The forum began on Sunday with a panel led by reproductive justice advocates and writers Regine Mahone and Renee Bracey Sherman. Titled Liberating Abortion, the panel centered around their new book, which chronicles the history of abortion and its transformation over the last several decades. 

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Tonight, (March 26) at 6:30 p.m. EST, Her Dream Deferred will continue with an exciting event—a discussion of Haitian author Edwidge Danticat’s book We’re Alone at the Columbia School of Journalism. The book traces a journey from Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, exploring themes such as environmental catastrophe, colonial trauma, motherhood, and resilience. The essays also pay tribute to literary giants like Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin.

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The forum will culminate Friday, March 28, with the BELA’s Renaissance: The Ultimate Gathering – A Women’s Symposium. This event, inspired by the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance, will bring together professionals from all fields and BELA student leaders to share their creativity, hopes, and brilliance. For full event details, please visit the link here.

Founded in 2015 by critical race theory pioneer and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, the AAPF has been organizing Her Dream Deferred to amplify the voices and experiences of Black women and girls. In a statement shared on the organization’s Instagram, Crenshaw emphasized the urgency of this year’s event, urging women to join the fight for justice and equality, which has never been more critical.

“We are now experiencing a full-scale assault on the last 60 years of racial and gender progress with a particular impact on Black women,” Crenshaw said. “From targeting intersectionality, Black feminism, and Black queer studies—the very frameworks we need to understand our current political moment and forge a more democratic future—to the elimination of research into health conditions that disproportionately burden Black women, the so-called assault on “DEI” is just code for erasing Black history, power, and voices, with Black women as some of its most prominent casualties.”

She added, “Now more than ever, we need to harness the collective power of the generations of Black women, those before us and those coming up after us, to fight against efforts to defer our dreams for any longer.”

RELATED CONTENT: AAPF’s 2021 Her Dream Deferred Event Took A Week-Long Look At The Experience, Struggles And Needs Of Black Women