Webster’s dictionary says feminism is, “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities,” and “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests.”

Since spring 2013 the club Advocates for Black Feminism (ABF) has been immersed in these ideals, making a statement of empowerment at Sacramento State, and creating a safe environment for women to come and share their experiences and opinions.

“To me black feminism is more about agency and it’s really understanding who you are as an individual and how you can impact society at large,” said vice president of ABF, Amber Wilson. “We’re creating awareness for educating our community and I think that’s really the lasting effect of black feminism and why it’s important to me.”

ABF tries to create a safe place that people can go to talk openly about topics that might feel uncomfortable to discuss elsewhere.

It is a place where women of color can go to converse about what they experience on a regular basis.

“I can talk about my experience as a pure black woman and I’ve never felt this space like this where I can just not have it questioned,” said marketing and program coordinator of ABF Aja Johnson. “And I think they can understand the things that I’m going through on this campus, or just in general, what I’m going through in my life.”

Founder of ABF, Shani Neal said the idea behind the club stemmed from her wanting to have a place to go to and talk about what she was going through in her life, where it felt like home and had a pleasant community and environment.

“I wanted women of color voices to be heard,” said Neal. “I wanted there to be a place where women of color and black women could go and be able to make changes in their community.”

One of the misconceptions about ABF is the exclusivity the name gives off, when in reality being a black women or women of color isn’t a requirement by any means. ABF is welcoming to any person who wants to know more and get involved in something larger than a club, a movement.

“I think that people hear the name of our club and they think we’re exclusionary, they think that we’re divisive and that we don’t care about other groups, they think we only care about black women,” said Johnson.

Johnson said recognizing diversity and supporting each other could be a way of building community and that ABF advocates for change and tries to instill empowerment in women.

“I think it’s just important to break down these barriers and realize that race, class, gender and things like that are okay topics to talk about […] you can have these open discussions and really use it to break down barriers between people,” said communicating officer of ABF Nicole Grawey.

ABF is focused on bringing different women organizations together on campus and continue to try to collaborate and have unity on campus.

“One of our goals this semester is to build bridges of solidarity,” said president of ABF Aisha Engle.

Engle emphasizes the importance of having a strong community and is working on having more programs and events put on by a collaboration of women organizations on campus.

During a club meeting all the members of ABF were painting, drawing and decorating their own squares of intersections, putting however they identified themselves on the square to hang in the Women’s Resource Center.

“I think acknowledging intersections is one really unique thing it [ABF] brings to campus, […] I can’t think of any spaces on campus where especially experiences of black women are really centralized or really considered as like a ‘thing,’” said Johnson.

Engle wanted to extend the invitation of putting decorated squares of personalized intersections up in the Women’s Resource Center, and organizations interested can contact her for details.

“We’re here to change something,” said Wilson. “We are advocates for black feminism, we advocate for agency and we’re changing perceptions of the images of women of color, and creating unity and community, so that’s really why we’re here.”