Blu Lopez Au

Blu Lopez Au (they/them/elle) is a non-binary chicanx-indigequeer-gaysian. They were born on the original homelands of the Tohono O’odham people and raised by survivalist parents who literally crossed oceans and moved mountains through their fierce fire to always find a way. Blu is a first-generation college graduate who received their BA in Sociology-Public Health from UArizona. Their own fierce fire was ignited through the healing power of community and the collective voices of intersectional hood feminists organizing around gender-based violence and community accountability. Blu has since been inspired to continue creating collective community care networks within their own Queer Trans Black Indigenous People of Color (QTBIPOC) community. Blu is a passionate poet, plant-lover, and healing arts practitioner. They’re currently working on a Masters in Mexican American Studies and are interested in deepening their understanding of Indigenous Systems of Healing. They are interested in understanding the creative, non-linear, and liminal ways ancestral knowledge is acknowledged and accessed as a resource to heal colonial generational trauma. Specifically place-based understandings of how the descendents of original people's- Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) are healing through their relationships to ancestral land-based practices- such as ancestral foodways, ancestral medicine, and ancestral spiritual practices.