Not Writing

It’s not something I do professionally, but I’ve been lucky to organize from time to time with some of the best and smartest people I know on mutual aid, climate, and immigration.

In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I founded the mutual aid network Bed-Stuy Strong, a group of ordinary people organized around the belief that every person deserves to have their survival needs met.

Bed-Stuy Strong raised and redistributed $1.2M dollars in grassroots donations and supported 28,000+ fellow Brooklynites with a week or more of groceries or other survival needs during the pandemic. The network has mounted multiple other civic and organizing initiatives, from bringing free Wi-Fi to public areas to vaccine access outreach to abolitionist support of incarcerated New Yorkers.

• The New Yorker: What mutual aid can do during a pandemic

• NBC LX: Explaining the past, present, and future of the mutual aid movement

• NPR: Love and solidarity: amid coronavirus, mutual aid groups resurge in NYC

• Civic Hall: Bed-Stuy Strong: Scaling mutual aid during COVID-19

• CNN: The small digital network making free food deliveries to vulnerable neighbors in Brooklyn

• BK Reader: Bed-Stuy Strong expands mutual aid efforts as one year anniversary approaches

Other work: I’m not an active part of the collective anymore, but if you’re interested in submitting to SAAG: A Dissident Literary Anthology, you can follow submission deadlines and learn more about the project here.