Solidarity Beyond the Elections

ABOUT THE EPISODE GUESTS

Rachel Cheek (they/any) is an organizer, writer, and healer based in El Paso, TX. They are the Organizing Manager in the Movement Building Department at the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF). They love being able to help funds hone their organizing skills, build care and safety into their plans, and broaden the amount of people excited about repro organizing.
Rachel is a former board member West Fund, where they served in various roles over the course of six years. In their community, they love to organize and skill-share around community safety and healing practices. They are also an animal parent, consumer of cheesy 80s media, and newly converted gym rat.
Mary Hooks is a Black, lesbian, feminist, mother and Field Secretary on the field team for the Movement for Black Lives. Mary is the former co-director of Southerners on New Ground (SONG). Growing up in a family that migrated from Mississippi to the Midwest, Mary’s commitment to liberation is rooted in her experiences and the impacts of the War on Drugs on her community. Mary has devoted her life to transformative organizing work and has been at the forefront of struggles that impact the lives of Black and brown queer and trans people in the South, including the campaign to end cash bail, defund the police, re-imagine public safety, and develop new organizers.
Margaret Faliano (she/her) is a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Montana and grew up an urban Native in the Pacific Northwest. She currently resides on the traditional homelands of the Mohican and Munsee Lenape peoples in the NYC metropolitan area and graduated from the University of Oregon Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Business Administration, B.S. in International Studies, and a Certificate in Global Business.
Margaret is the Associate Director of Advocacy & Engagement at IllumiNative: a Native women-led nonprofit that builds power for Native peoples by amplifying contemporary Native stories, voices, and issues to advance justice, equity, and self-determination on a national scale. Margaret’s trainings and relational networking initiative utilize research, narrative and culture change strategies, movement-building, and organizing to disrupt the invisibility of Native peoples, re-educate Americans, and mobilize public support for key Native issues. As an urban Native, Margaret has always yearned to see accurate and contemporary Indigenous representation in society, especially in politics, media, and fashion.