Dear all,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits.
My name is Shanaz Deen, and I am the Racial Justice Advocacy Fellow at the Interfaith Center of New York. The predecessor of my position graciously offered monthly updates related to ICNY’s racial justice work – an initiative I hope to relaunch. In my three months working here, I have been blessed to engage with a vast range of social justice issues, from food security to closing Rikers Island. This blog will offer brief recaps of the work I’ve been doing, while also highlighting the important advocacy conducted in each portfolio.
As I look ahead towards 2024, I am reflecting on the various ways we do advocacy: petitions, phone-zaps, rallies, press conferences, etc. Oftentimes, these are products emerging out of a collection of diverse experiences and shared struggle. Yet, rarely, do we know the people and the stories behind campaign titles.
I first witnessed the intersection of storytelling, narrative building, and activism in my college years, where I worked with my Office of Religious Life to collect the oral histories of refugees who resettled in the US. The simple act of listening and documenting personal histories laid the groundwork for projects that later brought the critical topics of migration and resettlement to educational, professional, and artistic spaces. I was reminded of this potent tool at our “Faith in Action for Food Justice” conference earlier this month. One of our advocacy panelists mentioned how writing letters to representatives, though a simple act, communicates a narrative that is often distant from those in power. Oral histories, letters, testimonies – they all bridge people and evoke change through empathy; and that, I believe, is often what makes interfaith organizing so powerful.
Going forward, I hope this advocacy blog can shift away from simply recapitulating previous work toward 1) sharing important updates about the status of our advocacy efforts, and 2) our communities’ stories. For the former, what accomplishments and/or setbacks have we witnessed, and in which ways can the broader community support next steps? For the latter, I invite each of you to contribute to this blog, be it an essay, interview, or photo. What experiences inform and motivate your work? How do you maintain hope in the face of resistance? The ultimate goal of creating this forum is to reclaim our narratives and inspire further activism.
We are looking to incorporate stories of faith and civic leaders into future blog posts. What are parts of your work that the public rarely sees, but may activate people to act? There are various options for how this contribution can take place. You can submit your own essay or op-ed (~500 words). Maybe it’s about a recent event at your organization or reflecting on a setback in your advocacy campaign. Or, I / Shanaz can interview you about a particular topic and write a short article. Or, you have another idea to pitch!
A newsletter covering our work from September to December 2023 is available here, although many of the summaries can be found as blog posts here.
Warm regards,
Shanaz
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Previous Racial Justice Coalition Updates
Cover photo by Lerone Pieters on Unsplash
