Narration &
Liberation
2021 fellows
Embodying resilience and fortitude, the 2021 Fellows document, educate, and activate through the power of narrative and community cohesion. They know the path to liberation will take us all loudly declaring we are here, and we will thrive.
Aurum
linh
christina
dawkins
Jazmin
martinez
j
fu
jonathan
lykes
molly
benitez
shani
smith
trinice
mcnally
REST IN POWER
AMELIA BROWN
Learn more about how they're creating a brighter tomorrow.
AURUM LINH (THEY/THeM)
Algorithmic Injustice Event Series | Canarsie Territory
“The exploration of inner expansiveness is healing.”
Aurum is the Creatrix of Atlas Lab with extensive experience working in software development at companies like Adobe, IDEO CoLab, and Internet Archive. Lihn’s project, the Algorithmic Injustice Event Series, focuses on the voices of those whose lives have been affected by algorithmic decision making to connect them with folks working within the law sector to challenge its use.
CHRISTINA DAWKINS (SHE/HER)
Mapping Modern-Day Slavery | Canarsie Territory
“I carry only what serves me.”
Christina specializes in human trafficking, punitive incarceration, and immigrant detention. Dawkins has over 10 years of experience in higher education, developing programs, teaching courses, and advising students. She became the founding Program Manager of the Justice-in-Education and Public Humanities Initiatives, in addition to founding the Lang Prison Initiative, the first in-person college program at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. Dawkins’s project, Mapping Modern-day Slavery, addresses the societal problem of modern-day slavery in the United States that takes the form of human trafficking, punitive incarceration, and immigrant detention.
JAZMIN MARTINEZ (THEY/THEM)
Land in the Hands of BIPOC Farmers |
Kaskaskia Territory
“Connecting with my body is gratitude.”
Jazmin draws on the strength, energy, resilience, love, and support of those that sustain them and their lineage. They come from a lineage of campesinos who for decades worked and lived off the land in Mexico. Martinez’s project, Land in the Hands of BIPOC Farmers, seeks to put land back in the hands of BIPOC farmers as a means of survival, especially during this climate crisis, and as a strategy for collective change that dismantles the current systems of oppression and violence.
J Fu (THEY/THEM)
The Abolitionist Collective | Quinnipiac Territory
“Wild truth feeling pain shared freedom.”
J works with incarcerated community members to envision and build abolitionist organizing. Fu’s project, The Abolitionist Collective, will be the economic justice arm of the Prison Abolition Community. It will activate a collective of incarcerated people in Connecticut organizing for abolition and join abolitionist organizing to community-led pathways for economic liberation.
JONATHAN LYKES (THEY/HE)
Keeping House|Ballroom Community Alive Network | Mvskoke Territory
“Joyfully manifested a self-determined life.”
Jonathan is a Black queer artist, activist, and academic. His interdisciplinary approach to art, activism, and anti-oppression work, merges policy change, artistic expression, and activism. Combining these forms of social transformation — and harnessing their synergy — Lykes works to create awareness, promote personal healing, surmount institutional barriers, and generate systemic change. KBCAN taps into the radical imagination of the House|Ballroom community and dreams up a world that keeps its members safe as it expands economic opportunity and harnesses the power of queer/trans culture, storytelling, and ritual that allows the community to thrive.
MOLLY BENITEZ (THEY/THEM)
The Junqtion | Puyallup Territory
“No, I don't want a hug.”
Molly is an educator, organizer, and activist. A current Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland and former welder, Benitez took a break from the shopfloor to learn more about the experiences of LGBTQ+ and QTBIPoC trades workers. Their project, The Junction, is a Virtual LGBTQ Trades Worker Community Center that serves to fill a gap within the LGBTQ and labor community – a small but vibrant community that faces inordinate amounts of harassment, violence, and trauma.
SHANI SMITh (SHE/HER)
Black Cornerstones Skills Library | Kaskaskia Territory
“Write the story you will live.”
Shani inspires collective action and is a Non-Violent Direct Action trainer for Beautiful Trouble. She has worked as a Community Outreach Organizer for Service Employees International Union Healthcare in Illinois for four years. Smith has studied Non-Violent Direct Action for the past 12 years under the mentorship of Civil Rights Leader Rev. James Lawson. Smith’s project, Black Cornerstones Skills Library, is looking to strengthen civic engagement to build power in Black communities on Chicago’s Southside which experiences disproportionate rates of intra-community violence, community divestment, and systemic poverty.
TRINICE MCNALLY (SHE/HER)
Disrupting the Criminalization and Myths of Black Migrants | Nacotchtank Territory
“The only way over is through.”
Trinice is a nationally recognized transformative leader, scholar, organizer, and creative committed to the liberation of oppressed people. She currently serves as the founding director of the Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Multicultural Affairs at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), one of the nation’s oldest HBCUs. McNally’s project serves to educate, mobilize, and agitate people around the criminalization of Black migrants and the impact of anti-Blackness resulting from colonization. Through this, she hopes to accomplish mass politicization and create pipelines of advocacy to support and fight for Black migrants through digital shifts of cultural narrative.
Amelia Brown (SHE/HER)
Revolutionary Rest & Invest | Wahpekute Territory
“Fighting for justice on the journey.”
Amelia was an artist, teacher, writer, speaker, and consultant who emphasized the importance of the arts in addressing racism. She was working to gather Black women artist leaders to rest and invest in themselves and their communities so they could facilitate creative crisis management. Amelia passed to the next life before the program began. We honor her legacy and carry her with us on the journey.