Elijah McKenzie-Jackson

It’s not every day you meet someone who sketches climate grief on a napkin and turns it into a Times Square billboard. But Elijah McKenzie-Jackson isn’t here to do things the usual way. The 21-year-old British artist and activist — or “artivist,” as he calls it — is part of a growing wave of Gen Z changemakers who don’t just want to save the world. They want to remake it.

Artivist (noun) /ˈär-tə-vist/

A person who merges art and activism, using creative expression—visual, performance, literary, digital—to challenge injustice, spark dialogue, and mobilize social or environmental change.

Born in London to gay parents and raised with both tenderness and defiance, Elijah’s lens on activism is shaped by a lifetime of seeing how systems fail the most vulnerable. “I never had the luxury of separating identity from impact,” he tells me. “Being queer, being emotional, being loud — that’s always been part of how I fight.”

At 15, Elijah co-organised the UK’s largest youth climate strike. “We had 100,000 students outside Parliament,” he recalls, eyes bright. “And suddenly, people were listening.” But while many activists stick to the mic, Elijah picked up a pen. His sketches — visceral, raw, often drawn live during speeches by heads of state — have since been streamed to over 150,000 people at events like the Clinton Global Initiative and Climate Week NYC.

His work doesn’t just document the moment. It disrupts it.

“There’s rage, obviously. But also grief, and softness. That’s what I try to capture,” Elijah says, flicking through a tattered sketchbook with ink-stained fingers. It’s this emotional honesty that powers Blue, his debut book — a genre-bending essay-manifesto-poem-visual journal hybrid that asks what it means to come of age in a world falling apart.

Think Baldwin meets Billie Eilish. With graphite.

It’s why Meta tapped him for their Social Impact campaign. Why he’s shown work across four continents. Why his organisation, WaicUp.org, has reached 3.2 million people — all before his 22nd birthday.

“People forget that queerness is creative. It’s adaptive.” Elijah says. “We’ve always had to imagine a world that doesn’t yet exist — and build community around it.”

okay, but what’s next?

He shrugs. “A nap. And then maybe an exhibition that feels like a love letter to grief.” It’s hard to tell if he’s joking.

But what’s clear is this: Elijah McKenzie-Jackson is building something bigger than himself — something fluid, deeply felt, and politically sharp. A movement with sketch lines and sharp edges. A future shaped in the language of art.

Quickfire Q’s with Elijah

First protest?

Age 11 at Pride, with my mums. I never looked back.

Book that changed your life?

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — gave me language I didn’t know I needed.

Dream collab?

Setu Legi. No question. Movement, texture, feeling.

One line that sums you up?

Power in resistance (I have it tattooed)

Elijah’s debut book Blue is available through select indie booksellers and Olympia Publishers. To explore more of his work, visit www.elijahmckenziejackson.com