elle roberts, (all pronouns)
Community Programs Manager at Indy Reads
What does “all pronouns” mean?
While I love my Black girlhood and womanhood, my gender does not currently align with a specific gender identity. Please feel free to respectfully refer to me with they, he, or she pronouns. If you’re not sure about how to use all pronouns for me, you can call me by my name and I welcome your questions asked with care. My use of all pronouns is in part a commitment to disrupting collective assumptions about gender based on people’s names and appearances.
Why do I spell my name in all lowercase letters?
The spelling of my name is in honor of writer and feminist theorist bell hooks. I use all lowercase letters to emphasize the significance of my small contributions to the big world we share.
bio
elle manages community programs at Indy Reads. elle is a facilitator, artist, and writer with a “sharp oyster knife” in the words of Zora Neale Hurston. They have been a public educator and community builder for over a decade, collaboratively organizing grassroots groups and professionally serving local nonprofits based in Central Indiana.
elle’s practice as a whole person is rooted in a loving relationship with our living and breathing Earth, the Combahee River Collective Statement, restorative justice principles, and teaching as learning as teaching. They make new worlds possible by connecting people through storytelling. elle is usually enjoying sun medicine, rollerskating on the empty end of an outdoor tennis court, watching anime with their kid, belly laughing with friends and family, and studying their Black literary ancestors like Toni Cade Bambara and June Jordan.