HAZEL KOLB
BRIGHTER IMAGE AWARD WINNER
PORSCHE TAYLOR BY JOY BURGESS P H O T O S B Y P O R S C H E TAY L O R A N D B A R R Y H AT H AWAY
ach year the AMA Board of Directors Awards Program — overseen by the AMA Board of Directors — seeks to honor individuals and organizations who’ve demonstrated uncommon excellence, leadership and dedication in pursuit of the AMA mission: promoting the motorcycle lifestyle and protecting the future of motorcycling. After all, the motorcycling community owes its continued success and growth to the people who choose to make a difference. The AMA Hazel Kolb Brighter Image Award, specifically, acknowledges an individual or organization that’s generated excellent publicity for motorcycling. And for 2021, the Board of Directors chose to honor AMA member Porsche Taylor — the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Black Girls Ride magazine, as well as the founder of the Beautiful Bikers Conference and Black Girls Ride to Essence Festival — with this award. “Porsche Taylor is an excellent example of an AMA member who made a choice to make a difference in the motorcycling community,” said AMA Board of Directors Chairman Russ Ehnes. “Through her efforts, she’s been a positive voice for motorcycling, promoting the motorcycle lifestyle in a way that’s reached thousands of women in the U.S. and beyond. We’re proud to have her as an AMA member and to present her with the Hazel Kolb Brighter Image award for 2021.” Winning this prestigious award brought Taylor’s motorcycle story full circle, from an early start with an AMAsanctioned club to being honored by the organization. “After riding on the back with a cousin,” Taylor told American Motorcyclist, “I knew I was not going to be a passenger. Two weeks later — this was in 2003 — we went to see the movie Biker Boys. The thing that stood out to me was women riding their own bikes.”
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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST • FEBRUARY 2022
