Grant-making Panel

Shani Akilah

In January of 2016 Shani Akilah (they/them) visioned and created the Black and Brown Workers Cooperative (BBWC)–a collective that is now 400 workers strong in Philadelphia. The BBWC has successfully changed the power structure in the Philadelphia gayborhood by ousting former LGBTQ liasion to the mayor, Nellie Fitzpatrick, organizing with and unionizing Mazzoni workers, as well as impacting city wide policy. Today the BBWC continues to focus on Black and Brown workers who straddle identity lines along race, class, sexuality and gender identity and identity expression. They are also launching a 2018 agenda focused on disrupting and fighting gentrification in south west Philadelphia. They lead our overall vision, grant writing and our national strategy to grow. They are a published writer, visionary and liberationist

Joshua Allen

Joshua Allen (they/them) is a non binary artist & activist from Brooklyn, NY. Involved in the movement for Black lives and the struggle for trans and queer liberation as a teenager, Joshua has always been passionate about amplifying the voices of those who live at the margins. By using art, writing and direct action they seek to bridge the gaps between racial and gender justice. They are most excited about joining Resist's 2020 funding panel to uplift and empower organizing groups on the frontline of movement's all across the country.

Betiel Brhane

Betiel Brhane (she/her) is a black queer undergrad student at UMass Boston. She believes in investing in community organizing while divesting from performative work that doesn't fundamentally change the social conditions of Black people. Similarly to Marie Kondo, when considering different aspects of movement, she asks herself "Does this spark joy and liberation? If it doesn't, throw it out." She enjoys exploring how her seemingly different interests such as science and technology can support the revolutionary work.

Nicki Kattoura

Nicki Kattoura (he/him) is a Palestinian organizer currently based in Philadelphia. He is an editorial assistant for Common Notions, a small press, and a collective member at Making Worlds; a bookstore and social center that emphasizes abolitionist and climate-adapted autonomy, anti-displacement and anti-gentrification, and the affirmation of worlds imagined and made by Black, Brown, and Indigenous traditions of liberation. 

Nathan King

Nathan King (he/him) is a grassroots organizer from Chattanooga Tennessee, living and working in South Central Appalachia. Nathan is a member of Concerned Citizens for Justice (CCJ) an organization that is rooted in more than 35 years of the Black Radical tradition in Chattanooga, fighting to end state violence and win transformative demands that will lead us toward police and prison abolition. He is a popular education coordinator with the Universidad Sin Fronteras (University Without Borders), and a teacher resident with the Project Inspire program.

Peter Strand

Peter Strand (he/him) organizes with La Resistencia, an abolitionist collective that is going to shut down ICE’s Northwest Detention Center. He also works with the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, mobilizing white folks to make tangible contributions to racial justice movements. Peter is based in Seattle, WA.