Marcus the Person is Marcus the Activist

New York, I Love You But You've Changed

Marcus Alston is 18 years old. A Bushwick native. An activist. A Fashion Killa. A 2020 graduate of Pace High School in lower Manhattan and current freshman at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Marcus is an activist who is in love with activism and his people. He has spent the last four years fighting for a more equitable city, with a specific focus on school suspension reform and integrating New York City’s very segregated schools. In this episode, Marcus shares with Alexis his experience growing up in Bushwick, its gentrification, his history as an activist, his experience protesting last summer, being a Black person at a PWI and living outside of NYC for the first time in his life. We also hear his take on the impact of a year of protests, the power of his generation and his hopes for our city moving forward. Oh, and how much he loves thrifting and Pop Smoke.

Marcus’s interview is the first of our second season, which is a love letter to New York City after a year of sickness, sadness, and tragedy that was also filled with love, solidarity and triumph. Many of this season’s episodes will be dedicated to the activists and organizers who have been holding us down over the past year.

Places on the Internet to learn more:

• Ok Boomer, Teen Vogue

• Inside New York’s Suspension Schools, Chalkbeat

• Marcus on New York Times’ The Weekly: The Fight to Desegregate New York City’s Schools

• What Black Schools Mean to Black Kids (Jemilah Lemieux,The Nation)

• Teens Take Charge