Project Liberate is back- and we're going further.
An immersive leadership and health access experience built for Black queer men ready to transform themselves, strengthen their communities, and challenge the systems that shape our lives.
Montgomery, Alabama is up first! Applications are open!
THIS IS PROJECT LIBERATE.
Your lived experience matters. Your ideas can create change.
Project Liberate is The Normal Anomaly Initiative’s leadership and health-access program for men in Montgomery, Alabama, with more cities coming soon. Offered as part of HPTN 096, the program helps participants build leadership skills, explore social entrepreneurship, and develop community solutions that improve access to HIV prevention, care, and support.
Beginning in November 2026, participants will take part in three in-person weekend retreats over approximately six months, with projects and cohort check-ins between retreats.
WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE.
What participants can expect:
- Practical training in leadership, entrepreneurship, peer support, and using data to strengthen ideas.
- Connections with peers, community leaders, and local resources.
- Up to $4,250 in support and funding to put individual and group project ideas into action.
- An opportunity to share their work at a community event and celebrate graduation.
- $750 in completion stipends.
- Participants should be prepared to attend all three retreats, participate in check-ins, and complete individual and group project activities. You don’t need an established business or formal leadership title—bring your ideas, your perspective, and a willingness to learn and collaborate.
And take liberation across the South.
THE LIBERATOR JOURNEY
You Don't Enter Project Liberate the Same Way You Leave It.
01 — COMMUNITY MEMBER
You arrive with your story, your experiences, your ideas, and your vision for what could be different.
02 — SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
You learn how to transform ideas into models, strategies, and solutions that serve your community.
03 — HEALTH ACCESS CHAMPION
You connect your leadership to the systems shaping health and opportunity—and develop the skills to help people navigate and change them.
04 — LIBERATOR
You leave prepared to apply what you've learned, engage your community, and join a growing network of Black queer leaders driving change across the South.
What You'll Experience
REAL TOOLS. REAL CONNECTIONS. REAL CHANGE.
LEADERSHIP
Discover how you lead, what drives you, and how your lived experiences can become an asset for creating change.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Learn how to turn an idea into action and build models that serve your community.
HEALTH ACCESS
Explore the systems that shape health in our communities and develop practical strategies for helping people access the resources they need.
DATA & STORYTELLING
Learn how to combine community stories, lived experience, and data to demonstrate needs, communicate impact, and advocate for solutions.
SIBLINGHOOD
Build authentic relationships with other Black queer people who are learning, growing, dreaming, and creating alongside you.
COMMUNITY ACTION
Take what you've learned from the retreat and design projects and experiences that drive change in your community.
THREE RETREATS. ONE TRANSFORMATION.
Project Liberate isn’t something you simply attend.
It’s something you move through.
RETREAT ONE
Start with you.
Explore your identity, leadership, purpose, community, and ideas while developing the foundation for turning what matters to you into action.
RETREAT TWO
Connect your ideas to impact.
Explore how systems affect health access, use data to understand community needs, and strengthen your ability to build solutions that respond to real barriers.
RETREAT THREE
Activate what you've built.
Bring your leadership, knowledge, relationships, and ideas together as you prepare to engage your community and continue your journey as a Liberator.
MORE THAN A COHORT.
A Network of Liberators.
Project Liberate creates relationships that extend beyond the retreat room.
Liberators become part of a growing network of Black queer leaders, entrepreneurs, advocates, creatives, professionals, and community members committed to building healthier and more powerful communities.
Opportunities for alumni may include mentorship, peer support, facilitation, community engagement, coalition participation, and continued leadership within Project Liberate.
The retreat may end. The work doesn't.
Where are we going first?
Project Liberate is expanding.
Our next generation of Liberators will begin their journey this fall in the first city of our new Southern expansion.
CITY ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON.
Applications Open September 2026.
Retreat One Begins November 2026.
Who Should Apply?
Project Liberate is for Black queer men who are ready to invest in themselves and their communities.
You do not have to own a business. You do not have to consider yourself an activist. You do not need years of leadership experience. We’re looking for people with curiosity, commitment, ideas, lived experience, and a desire to create something meaningful.
You might already be leading. You might just be discovering that you can. Either way, you may have a place here.
