As a strong believer in revising the hood, Jewel has worked on several campaigns canvassing the streets of Metro-Detroit hearing the issues that citizens are facing everyday and hosting community meetings. Jewel was born and raised on the Eastside of Detroit and her mission is to organize and educate the hood so that all black people can be free.

Arekia is the ED of MS Votes, an organization committed to civic engagement of Mississippians across generations, cultures, identities, inequities and struggles, with particular focus on young people. Arekia has been working on addressing voter disenfranchisement, voter ID laws, rural voter turn out, increasing voter participation in all elections and she also advises political aspirants and candidates seeking office on civic engagement strategy. Arekia founded GIRL, a black feminist collective at JSU and has been critical in developing and nurturing a black feminist political space and policy agenda with GIRL through MS Votes’ new initiative, “One Girl, One Vote.”

Bianca Avery is a businesswoman, educator, political strategist, and community advocate based out of Dallas, Texas. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University and completed her graduate studies in Leadership and Administration from Texas A&M University – Commerce. Bianca is an active member of the Urban League of Young Professionals, Texas Alliance of Black School Educators, Project 25:40, and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. She is a passionate believer in giving back to the communities she serves especially as it pertains to the youth and their families. She is married to Derek Avery, Sr, and they are the proud parents of three beautiful children Derek Jr., Madison, and Bryce.

Devohn is a formerly incarcerated Black woman who is an abolitionist. She believes that liberation is attainable for Black people living in America. Devohn believes that political change can occur in Black communities. She feels that Black people will trust the political system when knowledgeable progressive candidates are elected and change policies that are detrimental to Black communities. Devohn feels that organizations working together to empower, and educate the Black communities is instrumental in the liberation of Black people. She is a woman that is striving for giving Black people the opportunity to show their excellence in their communities through accessibility economic growth, integrity and accountability.

Aaron Jamal is a southern organizer, internationalist, educator and author committed to the unbound praise of Black people. Aaron has 10 years of experience in base-building, political education and movement strategy. Aaron has a passion for writing eclectic essays, making melodies and studying Black freedom struggles.

Alonzo Waheed was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in the Roseland Community. He attended North Carolina Military Academy prior to attending Byrd Community Academy. He later transferred to Chicago Vocational High School, where he completed his high school education. Alonzo furthered his education at DeVry Institute of Technology and Robert Morris College, where he studied business management. He has always garnered a thirst for knowledge, and he has learned how to apply his intelligence to benefit his community.

Growing up in the Roseland Community, a community beset with numerous obstacles, created many struggles for a young man full of vigor, but lacking the support, substance and resources to make a difference. Being raised by a single mother with six siblings, he was forced by circumstance to shoulder the burden of providing family needs that his employed mother could not provide.

Asa Rogers-Shaw is the son of Albert Carl Shaw Jr. and a native born Floridian from Fort lauderdale, Florida. He sees himself as an afrofuturist and a serious lifelong learner. He graduated from Florida State University where he pledged a life of service to the Iota Delta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha

Florence J. Alexander’s (she, her, hers) passion in community organizing, policy, and evaluation work stems from her inspiration from her family, friends, and home community of Saginaw, Michigan. She is studying Social Policy and Evaluation with a concentration in Community and Social Systems and with be graduating with her MSW in December 2019 from the University of Michigan. Florence works as a Policy and Data Science Specialist with One Love Global, Lansing, MI which facilitates racial equity work towards social justice. Florence’s past community organizing experiences include serving with AmeriCorps, researching recidivism and community outreach programs with Project Safe Neighborhoods, working as an Afterschool Coach with Youth First, as a facilitator with Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan, and serving as a My Brothers Keeper/Girls Equity Network Scholar focused on building youth political power in Black communities across Michigan. Florence is passionate about bringing communities together, reforming social policies to better serve communities that weren’t previously at the table, continuously learning, and building opportunities for youth to organize around ideas and futures they’re passionate about. Florence’s past and future work aligns with the Electoral Justice Project for the Movement of Black Lives as she is dedicated to racial justice, equity, amplifying voices that have been historically marginalized, and working towards a transformative society that values all of humanity.

Wendell has a long history of Civil Rights engagement in both Alabama and Mississippi. In the 2018 Mid Term Elections, Paris served as Black Voters Matter Mississippi’s Get Out the Vote Campaign Organizer. This election elevated a record number of Black judges to the bench and mobilized more Blacks to the polls than had voted in the past 40 years. He has served as the Mississippi Field Director for the NAACP and organized support for legalizing Motor Voter Registration in Mississippi. Paris organized an umbrella organization of childcare providers in Alabama and Mississippi.

Paris directed the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund’s Worker Training programs for Federal Highway Contracts; he worked with Mississippi Action for Community Education as director of a fresh food production program in the USDA declared Mississippi Delta Food Desert to support rural families. He helped organize the Southeastern Alabama Self Help Association a 12-county cooperative; and served as director of the Rural Training and Research Center of the Federation of Southern Co- operatives in Epes, Alabama.

As a student at Tuskegee University he helped to create the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League (TIAL) an affiliate of the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee. Through TIAL he helped to register voters and participated in direct action campaigns in Alabama and Mississippi. In 1966, as TIAL leader, he helped to elect the first Black Sheriff in the United States since reconstruction and, the election of two Blacks to the Alabama Legislature in more than 100 years in 1970.

Paris was elected to the Sumter County Alabama Board of Education in 1980, where he served a six-year term.

Enyer Martinez is an organizer from Opa-Locka, Florida. As a youth, his experiences with the police coupled with having an incarcerated guardian made him a precocious and politically minded individual who was uniquely sensitive to the corruption he witnessed depleting community. Enyer came to organizing as a working-class man from a heavily policed working-class community with the goal of prison abolition. As a Dream Defender, he is currently engaged in efforts towards police divestment and the end of money bail in Opa-Locka and Miami-Dade county at large. It is the hope of liberation for his people, for his city that motivates him to fight on.

Lola Levesque is a formerly incarcerated organizer in South Phoenix who has been working on issues related to mass incarceration since 2003. In 2011 she co-founded Humanities Behind the Walls (HBW), a local collective of organizers, artists and educators who partnered with ASU’s School of Social Transformation to bring the study of humanities to prisoners and provide them access to grassroots organizations and campaigns. In 2018, lola joined The Mass Liberation Project, a national decriminalization campaign that seeks to end mass incarceration. In 2019, lola became a Reimagining Communities Fellow with the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. lola approaches her work as an abolitionist, a thinker, mother, activist, Black feminist, and Muslim. lola will continue to prioritize directly impacted, black-led projects that focus on transformative justice, revolution, and Black joy.

Gicola Lane is an organizer and strategist from Nashville, TN. She has led campaigns for a range of issues from predatory lending to police accountability. She currently serves as the statewide organizer for Free Hearts, a non-profit led by formerly incarcerated women helping to support, educate, and advocate for families impacted by incarceration. Gicola is focused on building statewide power in TN with a concentration on black communities. She is passionate about getting free, and has a deep love for community.