Political & Communications Strategist.
Social Change Alchemist.
Disrupting the status quo.
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Some Words I've Written
The (Zigzagged) Arc of History
"The thing about history books is that they often do not show all of the detailed setbacks and gains in a historical movement. You do not see the conversations Gandhi, or Harvey Milk, or Martin Luther King Jr. had over coffee the morning after a defeat. And yet history is altered by those who rise all of those mornings, take stock of the fight for equality, restrategize, and then keep moving towards justice." An analysis of how pushing for historic change is a more zigzagged than history teaches.
The Best Minds of Our Generation, and Keeping Them Alive
"As Audre Lorde once put it: 'Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.'" This is a reflection on the culture of progressive change-makers and how we care for ourselves and each other while doing the work to make the world better.
What Happens When SXSW Meets Austin's Homeless
"The power of SXSW is the power of ideas and the ability to turn them into creative outputs. This seems like a perfect time to turn some of that focus into serving the homeless by more than payment for 4G service." This is a response I wrote to the media blow-up over "Homeless Hotspots" at the 2012 SXSW.
Confronting the Myth of Choice: Homelessness and Jones v. City of Los Angeles
Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review decided to pioneer a new approach to legal writing. They would have a legal scholar analyze a new case, and then also invite someone personally affected by related laws to weigh in. This piece is my analysis of a recent court decision about homelessness, told through the lens of my own experience of having once being homeless.
On Opera!
A reflection on opera, poverty, economic theory, the ghost of Maria Callas, South Africa, etc.