How being illegally evicted made me an organizer and advocate

Power Station

This may sound unconvincing coming from someone who speaks into a microphone every week, but I don’t love talking about myself. What I do love is speaking with and amplifying the voices of those who confront and generate solutions to injustice in America. They are leaders of nonprofit organizations who use their values, know-how and expertise to bring capital to under-resourced communities, compel Congress to fund housing for lowest-income renters, educate the children of farmworkers; the list of accomplishments goes on. In this episode of Power Station, my friend and producer Robb Spewak asks about the illegal eviction that displaced me from a gentrifying block in Brooklyn and propelled me into a lifetime of organizing, policy advocacy and nonprofit leadership. We talk about how the best (in my opinion) nonprofits are those that build community power and press state legislatures and Congress to enact legislation rooted in racial equity. And I share my personal run-ins with sexism in nonprofits, which, along with racism the sector is not immune to. Mostly we celebrate the amazing guests that tell their stories each week on Power Station. And we tease some exciting changes to come.