Texas Tech University

Young Ambitious Activist Lexi Qaiyyim

Patrick Hutchison

June 23, 2020

Texas Tech University alumna Lexi Qaiyyim (BFA 2017), a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement in San Antonio, is an actor and activist. She makes performance and peace an emphasis of protests.

While the United States is reeling from COVID-19 and the resulting economic consequences of the global pandemic, protests are happening in countless cities and towns across the country. The protests are part of the renewed Black Lives Matter movement, prompted by the deaths of George Floyd, a Black man killed during an arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in her apartment when police executed a no-knock search warrant on March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky; and Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was killed while jogging on Feb. 23 in a Glynn County, Georgia, neighborhood.

Now, conversations are happening in civic circles, on social media and in living rooms about reform and what it is like to be Black in America.

Texas Tech University alumna Lexi Qaiyyim (BFA 2017), a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement in San Antonio, is an actor and activist. She makes performance and peace an emphasis of protests.

"We don't want to give anyone a reason to shut us down or stop what we are doing," Qaiyyim explains. "We are doing it for changes that need to happen in society. To make that change, we want to do it in the most peaceful way possible because we want to promote unity."

Qaiyyim puts a premium on organization, too. Maybe that was taught to her from her Air Force Veteran parents. Seeing the need to organize how protests came together in San Antonio, Qaiyyim and a few others formed Young Ambitious Activists with the mission to "strengthen community culture, improve our social services, and increase our local economic development."

Qaiyyim hightlights the goals of Young Ambitious Activists by explain that "here in San Antonio, [the city has] over $400 million that goes to the San Antonio Police Department. The community gets a lot less than that. I think $100,000 respectively to different groups. We need to put the money back in the community. We still need the police. There should be psych tests done periodically, especially after they fire their gun on duty, or when they find themselves in a bad situation that could affect how they do their job."

Qaiyyim attended elementary school on Misawa Air Base in Japan. It was not until middle school, when her parents were transferred to Texas, that Qaiyyim became personally aware of racial divides.

"I was truly not super conscious of my skin color in Japan," Qaiyyim reflects. "One of the biggest shocks to me was I came into middle school not knowing anybody at all. Everybody had already formed their little cliques and group of friends, so I was the odd person out.

"And then comments about my hair and the way I talked ... to be darker and the education you've been able to have is a bit of a dividing factor in the community ... it was weird. I heard a lot like 'you're the whitest Black girl I've ever met,' and people would call me 'Oreo.'"

In the eighth grade, Qaiyyim started acting. Creativeness became a way to combine all her interests—dancing, writing, daydreams of being a Veterinarian. Acting led her to the School of Theatre & Dance at Texas Tech, where she participated in the Marfa Intensive, the 24-Hour Play Festival, and "Eclipsed" by Danai Gurira. The Marfa Intensive was an experience of devising dramatic pieces as an ensemble inspired by the art and history of Marfa, Texas. "Eclipsed," however, in her senior year was a spotlight experience for Qaiyyim "that really sticks out and stays with me—that was the first time I was on the mainstage."

"Acting has really taught me empathy," Qaiyyim notes. "It has definitely helped me in the aspect of public speaking. I don't get nervous, and I don't get scared. I can pick up a megaphone or a microphone and just start talking."

After graduating with her BFA in 2017, Qaiyyim collected minimum wage jobs to build up enough money to chase her dream of acting in movies. She worked at a laundromat, call center, grocery store, and a few others day after day until she became tired of working jobs void of passion. She decided to quit her jobs, follow her passion, and take the road to Austin where she was hired for background work on "Fear the Walking Dead" and an Amazon Prime pilot. Just as Qaiyyim felt she was headed in the right direction, efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus shut productions down. She never had a chance.

Rather than dwell on her personal misfortunes, Qaiyyim conjures hope in knowing she is exactly where she needs to be right now.

"Black Lives Matter is something that is more important. If I can do something that is important and effect real change, then I'll do that. There's got to be a complete overhaul of the system. There's so much that has to be done if we are truly going to have that equality we are looking for. If we keep at it and keep going, the kind of change that will happen is going to be not only good for the Black community but everyone."

Qaiyyim is busy. Every day for the past two weeks, she has been at every protest in San Antonio. She finds the protests uplifting. At each, Young Ambitious Activists invite individuals to speak on their experiences in front of the crowd.

"We have a little portion called the 'People's Protest.' A lot of people will go up and say coming to the protest has changed their lives or their perspectives. They're people who always want to donate, too."

She will return to acting one day. "I put performance in everything I do," she says, but it is not to be the "sassy Black friend." The industry needs to change, too, and Qaiyyim points out that "now is really the time."