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Ahead of the November 5 General Election, powerhouse actress, producer, change agent and leader, Yara Shahidi mobilized students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Chancellor’s Speaker Series on October 24, to vote.
Shahidi was the featured guest at the “Your Voice, Your Vote,” installment of the series, where North Carolina A&T alumnus Tylik McMillan ’19 moderated the conversation.
Shahidi is an award-winning actress, producer and breakout star of ABC’s Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated series, “Black-ish.” She served as executive producer and lead of Freeform’s “Black-ish” spinoff series, “Grown-ish,” Amazon Studios’ romantic comedy, “Sitting in Bars with Cake,” and the Facebook Watch interview show, “Yara Shahidi’s Day Off.” She also played Tinker Bell in Disney’s live-action film, “Peter Pan & Wendy,” and voiced a character in Netflix’s 2022 animated film, “My Father’s Dragon.” Offscreen, Shahidi is a champion for inclusive media programming and an advocate for equity.
Inspired by her extensive work with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, Shahidi founded Eighteen by 18, now called WeVoteNext, to shine a light on Gen Z and inclusion of Black, Indigenous and people of color in the political process. While she encouraged students to exercise their right to vote, she also discussed the importance of getting the accurate information to put plans into action.
“What prompted me to start Eighteen by 18 and WeVoteNext, was just saying, if I’m sitting here so uncertain, I know that we’re all sitting here realizing there’s so much for us to learn. There’s a lot of information just kind of being tossed our way,” she said. “Voting is just one of our many tools.”
She also told students to have a ‘voting plan,’ whatever that looks like, such as speaking with fellow classmates, professors and gathering your friends to go to the polls together.
In 2022, Shahidi earned a B.A. in social studies and African American studies, with a concentration in Black political thought under a neocolonial landscape from Harvard University. She discussed her curiosity for learning which has been the catalyst for her being engaged in the political process.
“I think so many times as young people, we are put into a position to just suddenly develop a fully thought-out philosophy on life at 18 but aren’t often given the space to work it out in real time,” said Shahidi. “But the fact that I always had access to people that were willing to be in conversation with me and were willing to help me figure out what I thought about the world and help me put names to it was fundamental to me finding my voice.”
Shahidi shared that in addition to family and mentors in her life, she draws inspiration from leaders like the late Congressman John Lewis, who stressed that while voting is an important tool, it is not the only tool needed to care for your community.
“Thinking about the great John Lewis, he was also the first to say that along with voting, there’s still so much more we need to be involved in. And I don’t know about everybody else, but I know sometimes it can feel overwhelming to think our vote is the only time we have a chance to voice our opinion,” she said, adding, “It’s also about how we show up and make sure that our communities are cared for and make sure that policies that are put forward keep us in mind.
“So, I’ve looked to people like John Lewis. I looked to people that literally fought for our right to vote without discrimination. And they are some of the first advocates to say there’s so many other ways that we can show up to make sure that we’re holding those people accountable.”
