Luzviminda (Lulu) Uzuri Carpenter (She/Her/Hers)
by Esmeralda Simon-Hernandez (She/Her/Hers)
In Seattle’s organizer community, Luzviminda (Lulu) Uzuri Carpenter stands out as a prominent Black Filipinx womxn who inspires and incites revolution. Born at the Mountain Home Air Force in Idaho, Carpenter’s childhood involved moving around often. Carpenter witnessed the family violence that was normalized in the military. Her time at university enabled her to look back at her childhood and realize that the violence she saw was not normal and did not only happen in the military.
Carpenter completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Masters in American Studies at Washington State University. These degrees have enabled her to connect to and heal the communities of which she is a part. Carpenter works at the intersections of education, media, non-profit, and community organizing. This led Carpenter to the punk rock scene of Seattle. This incident was able to heal Carpenter after she had suppressed her queerness for fear of being ostracized. Sharing stories through music unites others who relate to the lyrics, and it builds communities that liberates people from systems of oppression.
Carpenter’s use of art and education to prevent violence within marginalized youth, including formerly incarcerated, gang affiliated, trafficked, homeless, immigrant, and refugees through multiple organizations in the Seattle area help to heal and transform lives. Presently Carpenter works as a Performance & Media Arts Teacher, Advisor, DEI Coordinator, and Resident Artist for Seattle Girls’ School whose mission is to inspire young girls to, “think independently, work collaboratively, learn joyfully, and champion change,” (Seattle Girls’ School Mission Statement) in the community and throughout the world. Before her time at Seattle Girls’ School, she served on the Seattle LGBT Commission as a Co-Chair, Historic Seattle as a Caretaker at Washington Hall, and has served on two community advisory boards: Zenyu Healing and Allyship. In this position she created trainings and programs with womxn of color, trans, and queer folx that discuss issues such as intersectional oppression, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and transformative justice. Carpenter then organized a movement called Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities Oral History Archive, created by graduate students from the GWSS department at the University of Washington located in Seattle, their mission was to give women the space to have dialogue about how they were being portrayed in popular music at the time (2008). Nowadays an annual unConference is held that is devoted to keeping womxn and their music alive and documented.
Carpenter still organizes and hopes for a vibrant art and music scene that stands up against all forms of violence. Intimate partner violence, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence, and sexual assault that happens in local venues and organizations. She hopes to see artists paid for their worth, because as Carpenter explains, “how can people continue to create challenging art if they’re not embraced and supported to do it in many different ways, even, especially, financially” (Carpenter). Ultimately, Carpenter wants to see collaborative projects and art that uplifts the community specifically womxn of color, trans, and queer folx throughout social scenes and movements in Seattle.
