In honor of National Black Voter Day, “Good As Hell” star Lizzo will have a livestream conversation with Vice Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris this Friday (today) at 6:30 ET / 3:30 PT on Instagram Live. Black Voter Day, an initiative rolled out by BET and the National Urban League, aims to get Black Americans registered to vote ahead of this November’s election.
Partnering with former first lady Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, BET and the National Urban League want to provide resources to get voters registered and push voters to research candidates and policies and how they’ll affect them. The action is a partial response to a drop in Black voter turnout in 2016, when 20 percent fewer Black Americans reported to the polls due to a lack of enthusiasm for either candidate.
However, political action groups see this as an unacceptable turn due to the last four years, which have seen poor administrative response to a series of crises, as well as a rise in voter suppression efforts nationwide as certain leaders look to entrench themselves in positions of power rather than serve the public. Part of the effort to reverse low voter turnout is recruiting visible stars like Lizzo to try to desmystify politcal processes like voting and separation of powers to help those who’d be most affected find their voices for change.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.