State of Solidarity

Rinku Sen is a writer and social justice strategist. She is formerly the Executive Director of Race Forward and was Publisher of their award-winning news site Colorlines. Under Sen’s leadership, Race Forward generated some of the most impactful racial justice successes of recent years, including Drop the I-Word, a campaign for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegal,” resulting in the Associated Press, USA Today, LA Times, and many more outlets changing their practice. 

Her books Stir it Up and The Accidental American theorize a model of community organizing that integrates a political analysis of race, gender, class, poverty, sexuality, and other systems. In her current role leading Narrative Initiative, she is building a vision of true multiracial, pluralistic democracy, and helping organizers across movements learn how to saturate every story with their ideas.

Anna Castro is Transgender Law Center’s Principal Narrative Strategist for the Trans Agenda for Liberation Narrative Lab. With fifteen years of experience designing and leading integrated advocacy campaigns in the voting and civic engagement, immigration, and transgender rights movement, Anna’s work with the Trans Agenda for Liberation Narrative Lab is centered on building narrative infrastructure at the national and state level. They hold a bachelor’s degree in Black Studies from Amherst College, led communications strategy at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Mi Familia Vota, and worked with Deepa Iyer to launch the Solidarity Is program to facilitate transformative solidarity practices for movement building organizations and activists.

Sharmin Hossain (she/her) is a Bangladeshi Muslim organizer and artist from Queens, New York. She is the Organizing Director of 18 Million Rising, building national Asian American political power that contributes to movements for racial justice, abolition, anti-militarism, and democracy through political education, campaigns, and deep base building. Sharmin was formerly an organizer with East Coast Solidarity Summer (ECSS) and Political Director of Equality Labs.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, raised in Festac, Nigeria, grounded in her legacy of organizers, farmers and healers, Adaku harnesses her seasoned skills as a grassroots strategist, abolitionist healer, movement facilitator, somatics coach and ritual artist as an act of love and commitment to her community. She enjoys co-cultivating social justice leaders and organizations to be more strategic, sustainable, and impactful. For over twenty years, their work has centered on movements for radical social change, with a focus on gender, reproductive, race, youth, and healing justice. They currently work on staff with the Building Movement Project where they support movement building organizations to tackle the most significant social issues of our times by developing research, creating tools and trainings, providing guidance, and facilitating networks for transformative change.