CITY COUNCIL RUN
2018-2021
Speeches Given at The Whitney Museum of American Art, International Center of Photography, signs and symbols gallery, Van Alen Institute, Forward Union Fair, and in District 38 of Brooklyn.
City Council Run was an electoral run in the 2021 City Council Races in New York City. I ran to represent District 38 in Brooklyn, and used the campaign as a platform to shift our culture towards supporting creativity, intersectionality, and diversity while raising awareness about the electoral system, queer rights, racial justice, and more. I used media, music, performance, and community organizing as tools to affect social change. I created campaign speeches, like You Never Know (featured above) that turned into cathartic rap rallies educating about how we can change the system from the inside out and the ground up through voting in local elections, grassroots organizing, and keeping our spirits high in these trying times. Exploring the culture of violence and fear-mongering that Western media perpetuates, I always share my lived experience to bring together an intergenerational non-hierarchical network to heal from our electoral traumas, have teach-ins about how/why/where to vote, and encourage a group catharsis through video, dance, and rap music. Can political empowerment for change and liberating entertainment be the same thing? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes.
You Never Know, shown at The Whitney Museum of American Art and performed with Laurie Berg and Zavé Martohardjono.
