Joan Garner is wearing a red jacket in this group photo of former SONG Co-Directors, Board Member, Co-Founders and Family. Photo Courtesy  Mab Segrest.

It is with a heavy heart that we share with y’all the news of Joan Garner’s passing after a prolonged battle with breast cancer.

Joan was a brilliant Black femme lesbian who helped co-found SONG 24 years ago. Her work is ever present here in the South and she never stopped working to advance our shared vision in all the roles she played from her tenure at the Southern Partners Fund to her role as a Fulton County Commissioner. Joan was known as a shining light in local politics for her work, her vision, and her relentless call onto her peers and the City of Atlanta to live up to a civil rights legacy by answering the call to social justice in our daily lives and in governance.

The SONG political family is honored to be among the many beneficiaries of her legacy and fruits of her loving labor. Though we grieve her absence, we are certain she has joined the ancestors and our lesbian foremothers, and we look forward to continuing to love and honor her, her partner Jane Morrison, and her family in the days to come.