Alycia Kamil Is A 20-Year Old Social Activist Who Inspired Mackenzie Scott To Donate Billions

Novelist and philanthropist Mackenzie Scott announced a few days back that she donated over $4.2  billion dollars to various organisations. In her blogpost '384 Ways to Help' on Medium, Mackenzie wrote that she has donated over $4.2 billion in the last four months to 384 organisations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C. to deal with the drastic impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

In the same blogpost, she also referenced the work of a 20-year old Chicagoan social activist, as an example of how neighbours are helping each other in these tough times. The girl is Alycia Kamil, a poet, educator and social rights campaigner/fundraiser.

Here are 10 things to know about Alycia Kamil:

1. Originally from Oak Park, Ill., Alycia moved to Chicago for middle school. She moved between the city's South and West sides and currently lives on the West Side.
2. Alycia started getting involved with organizing social work at 14. This was when her art, academics and real life got exposed to issues of race, gender and policing.
3. She is an active member of GoodKidMadCity. It is an initiative by people of colour in USA against racism, violence and hate crimes.
4. Kamil creates podcasts and content as well as conducts workshops called Undoing Our Erasure on Patreon. Her work on the platform aims for end of systemic racism and Black liberation.
5. She also joined Louder Than A Bomb, the largest youth poetry festival in the world. Alycia began to learn from fellow artists. "In that, I was able to see more people who do poetry on topics that I'm organizing for. Being able to see that in an artistic form resonated really well," she said.
6. Alycia was deeply influenced by the events of 2016 in her country, especially the election of President Donald Trump and protests in the wake of the release of the video of the Laquan McDonald shooting. Consequently, she went to her first big protest that year, alone, and marched with thousands of people.
7. In June, American rapper Kanye West made an appearance at one of the #BLM protests that Kamil co-organised in the city’s Bronzeville neighbourhood.
8. In the blogpost where Mackenzie cited her work as an example, she wrote, ""In March, a 19-year-old girl in Chicago sent a group text to her friends suggesting they buy supplies for people in their neighbourhood who had lost their jobs. She posted two Google forms — one for people who needed help and another for people with help to give — and by two days later they’d raised $7,000."
9. Kamil was surprised that the novelist and philanthropist referenced her work in the blogpost. She said, ""I was like, oh, that’s me. I had no clue that she even donated that amount of money. Or that she saw an article from somewhere about the work that I did that inspired her. It was pretty cool." Alycia has organised similar fund-raising initiatives in the past as well.
10. Kamil told about her plans to start 'Resource the Block' initiative to distribute PPE, water, food and other essential supplies. She's also plans to bring back the grocery drop-off program this winter.