N'Tanya Lee

N’Tanya Lee

N'Tanya Lee

About

N'Tanya Lee has a family history of activism and childhood roots in the Black working class of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She has spent thirty years working for social justice. Politicized by her experience of poverty, public assistance programs, and her mother’s resistance to the daily blows of oppression, NTanya spent her teenage years organizing her peers against Ronald Reagan’s military aggression and attacks on poor families. She organized for racial and gender justice as a college student, and started the first LGBT student of color organization on campus. In the early ‘90s she was active in grassroots, racial justice school reform campaigns, and was a member of Black AIDS Mobilization. In both New York and Michigan, she organized progressive alliances between working-class Black and Latino community organizations and white-led LGBT groups to fight a wave of anti-gay initiatives pushed by the Religious Right. For eleven years she worked with Coleman Advocates as a youth organizer and then Executive Director to build the power of Black and Latino families to win education, housing and budget justice in San Francisco, California. Coleman Advocates is a founding member of San Francisco Rising, an electoral and movement-building alliance of base-building organizations rooted in the city’s poor and working class communities of color. NTanya and her partner Ayoka are raising their five-year-old in the Bay Area.

Board members

Causa Justa/Just Cause 2022 board.

Maria Guillen, Adam Gold, Michelle Foy, N'Tanya Lee, Vanessa Moses, Laura Guzman.

This is not a Drill

Cindy Wiesner, Maurice Mitchell, N'Tanya Lee, Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris.

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared”

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Signatories included N'Tanya Lee Community organizer, Philadelphia.

M4BL Leadership

Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris February 11, 2019 · M4BL Leadership w/ our Convergence Council Team (Denise, Makani & N’Tanya) #Squad #M4BL

Makani Themba, N'Tanya Lee, Denise Perry, Mary Hooks, Morathi Adams, Serena Sebring, Dara Cooper, Richard Wallace, Nikita Mitchell, Karissa Lewis, Ash-Lee Henderson, Phillip Agnew, Monifa Bandele, Rukia Lumumba, Chinyere Tutashinda, Marbre Stahly-Butts, Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson, Gina Clayton-Johnson, Maurice Moe Mitchell.

Political education program

Nikita Mitchell - When the mobilizations really began heating up, The Rising Majority did a political education program. We had a virtual session with Angela Davis, Jamila Woods, N'Tanya Lee from LeftRoots, Kayla Reed from Action St. Louis, Karissa Lewis from Movement for Black Lives, Timmy Rose from Dissenters and Greisa Martinez Rosas from United We Dream. That teach-in had about 360,000 views, so I think folks are hungry to be out on the streets, to make meaning in this moment. Education is some of what this movement will be up to in the next few weeks.

Forward Motion

N’Tanya Lee, from People About Changing Education, a graduate student in American and African American Studies, and a Black and lesbian activist , contributed an article to Freedom Road Socialist Organization's Forward Motion, Spring 1995 issue "Workers, lovers, and fighters".

Black Radical Congress

In March 1998 “Endorsers of the Call” to found a Black Radical Congress included N'Tanya Lee, Ann Arbor, MI.

"Beyond Identity Politics"

"Beyond Identity Politics: Emerging Social Justice Movements in Communities of Color" by John Anner

"A long-awaited roadmap to the grassroots social justice movements of the 1990s and beyond. The strikingly diverse array of multiracial struggles presented here succeed, in various ways, by moving by simplistic identity politics. In an era when the right-wing seems to be winning all battles, Beyond Identity Politics presents a critical inside look at progressive victories.

Contributors were Clarence Lusane, Mark Toney, N’Tanya Lee, Don Murphy, Lisa North, Juliet Ucelli, Hoon Lee, Van Jones, Gary Delgado, David Bacon, Andrea Lewis.

District Elections in SF: How Do “We the People” Become the Driving Force?

Circa 2010 at Center for Political Education. With community and labor organizers, N’Tanya Lee (Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth), Calvin Welch (Housing Justice), Maria Guillen (SEIU) and activist Sasha Magee.

Progressives who fought for San Francisco’s District Elections in the 1970s and again in the 2000s, focused not on individual candidates – but on the broader movement for building grassroots power, developing people’s consciousness, and creating democratic structures to keep officials accountable.

District Elections in San Francisco – How do “We the People” become the driving force?, will trace the history of district elections that brought Harvey Milk to prominence in the 70s, and will look at the district town hall meetings and citywide Community Congresses, structures that developed an agenda and demands which elected officials had to respond to. In the context of the city’s current budget crisis, labor and community organizers will engage in a lively debate on how we can continue to build on the progressive gains of the 2008 elections, and fight for elected officials to follow the lead of the people.

Carl Bloice Institute

On October 25, 2014 .

Bhaskar Sunkara tweeted "Was great to attend CCDS' Carl Bloice Institute for Socialist Education with N’Tanya Lee and others today".

"Claim No Easy Victories"

The Center for Political Education April 17, 2014.

APRIL 28th! Join the The Center for Political Education, LeftRoots, and SFSU's Race and Resistance Studies for "Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral" Book Talk w/ Bill Fletcher, Jr., Maria Poblet, Walter Turner and N'Tanya Lee.

At 518 Valencia: The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics! — with Michelle Foy, Fernando Marti, Jason Ferreira, Carolina Morales, Camilo Sol Zamora, Kalexa Hella Zapantista, Walter Turner, N'Tanya Lee, Bill Fletcher, Jr., La More Rivas, Mari Posa, Jason Chipsnguac, Steve Williams, Maria Poblet and Yeiber Cano.

Key Bay Area comrades

Chelsea Boilard February 9 2014 :

with Alex Tom, Mario Yedidia, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, N'Tanya Lee, Jessamyn Sabbag.

PowerPac+ Board of Directors

PowerPAC+ Board of Directors, as of 2014 included N’Tanya Lee - Berkeley, CA Faculty, Graduate Program of Public Affairs at University of San Francisco.

Mapping Socialist Strategies

Mapping Socialist Strategies was convened from August 1-4 in Briarcliff Manor, NY, by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office. It brang together 100 influential progressives and leftists from across the United States, Canada, and Europe for an “un-conference” on socialist strategies.

Community Organizing and Institution Building: How can models of community organizing be used to further link localized, defensive struggles to broader movements for socialist transformation? What role should institution building play in this process? - Led by N’Tanya Lee and Denise Perry.

Causa Justa board members

As of 2015 the board of Causa Justa/Just Cause included;

• Boona Cheema
• Michelle Foy
• Maria Elena Guillén
• Gilda Haas
• N’Tanya Lee
• Gordon Mar
• Maria Poblet
• Julie Quiroz

Ear to the Ground Project

The two coordinators of the Ear to the Ground Project are N’Tanya Lee & Steve Williams.

After more than two decades of on-the-ground organizing in distinct organizations, the two of us have spent the last sixteen months on a unique journey together. We conducted more than 150 interviews with movement activists, read the work of movement intellectuals, and spent a lot of time in conversation with each other— in doing so, we pushed ourselves to imagine the world, and our own work, in new ways.

The Ear to the Ground project became a national research effort and a profoundly transformative process for us as individuals. While the project led to this final report, it’s political impact lies less in the words on these pages, but in the relationships and conversations created over the last year, and the ideas for new initiatives that emerged.

LeftRoots

In 2014, N’Tanya Lee, Cinthya Munoz, Maria Poblet, Josh Warren-White, and Steve Williams were members of the LeftRoots Coordinating Committee.

LeftRoots HangOut with Willie Baptist

Please join LeftRoots Friday August 15th (2014) for our next HangOut with Willie Baptist about the importance of leadership, leadership development and understanding who the ruling class is and what their strategies are.

On May 1, 1990, the National Union of the Homeless (NUH) launched a nationally coordinated campaign taking over federally-owned houses in eight cities across the country. Willie Baptist, our guest on the next LeftRoots HangOut, was one of the organizers of the NUH.

Founded in 1985 by formerly homeless people, the Union was on the move in the late 1980s. At its height, the Homeless Union counted on 25 chapters with as many as 15,000 members. Then, through a combination of drugs, prison-sentencing and co-optation, the ruling class mounted a concerted effort to break the Union. The organization dissolved by 1993.

Willie Baptist is one of the best examples of a movement intellectual. Willie is a formerly homeless father who came out of the Watts Uprisings, the Black Student Movement and has been an organizer with the United Steelworkers as well as the National Union of the Homeless and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Today, Willie is the Scholar-in-Residence with the Poverty Initiative.

The LeftRoots CC: Alex Tom, Alicia Garza, Cinthya Munoz, Josh Warren-White, Maria Poblet, N’Tanya Lee, Steve Williams and Timmy Lu.

LeftRoots National Strategy Committee

The LeftRoots National Strategy Committee - HangOut Planning Team (Claire Tran, N’Tanya Lee and Lucia Lin, 2015.

RoadMap

N'Tanya Lee is a consultant with RoadMap, a Freedom Road Socialist Organization affiliated consultancy group .

Bay Area Rising!

Chelsea Boilard March 20, 2015 ·

Bay Area Rising! #building #wearethechange — with Robbie Clark, Christine Tervalon-Garrett, Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, Jahmese Kathleen Myres, Jessamyn Sabbag, Adam Gold, Fabiana Ochoa, Neva Walker, N'Tanya Lee, Antonio Diaz, Maria Poblet, Emily Ja-ming Lee, Ayoka Turner, Timmy Lu, Linda Lee and Mario Yedidia.

Celebrating Grace Lee Boggs

Brooke Anderson Photography: Stills of Our Stories & Struggles March 21,2016 ·

With Margo Okazawa-Rey, Phil Hutchings, Gwyn Kirk, Shirley Strong, Alex T. Tom, Lauren Liu, N'Tanya Lee, Nancy Vogl, Rob Yanagida, Linda Lee, Brenda Salgado, Alice Kuang, Shea Howell, Ellen Choy, Tawana Petty, Roberto E. Vargas, Kweli Tutashinda, Michelle Puckett, Nobuko Miyamoto, Le Tim Ly, Star Hawk, Grace Lee and Invincible Ill Weaver.

Book talk with Jamala Rogers

518 Valencia St, San Francisco Sunday 7 February 2016, organized by Michelle Foy "Book talk with Jamala Rogers, founder of the St. Louis based Organization for Black Struggle & author of Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebel".

Jamala will explore the roots of the Ferguson Rebellion and the practical lessons for organizing.

"There is no algorithm, no theory that can predict when human rage reaches its boiling point. I wanted to expose to some and to remind others that there is another side of Ferguson, St. Louis County, USA that exists...if we work together in a respectful & disciplined way, a new Ferguson, St. Louis, & USA, is possible." —Jamala Rogers

Those signalling their intention to attend on Wherevent included Georgia Faye Hirsty, Melanie McCrea, Joe Navarro, Michelle Foy, Cynthia Fong, Gerald Lenoir, Fernando Marti, Lucia Aguilar-Navarro, Joyce Nakamura, Jeremy Gong, Jason Wallach, Andrew Rogge, Lucy Clarke, Colleen FitzSimons, Saima Hashimi, Rachel Rye Butler, Pam Tau Lee, Afomeia Tesfai, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Kari Riesgo Banuelos, Eva Martinez, Justin Tombolesi, Josh Warren-White, Kate Sorensen, Malkia Cyril, Lelia Gomez, Mark Prudowsky, N’Tanya Lee, Marcy Rein, Finley Coyl, Shina Riane, Ken Yamada, Dyan Ruiz, Nancy Wan, Sarah Jarmon, Mark McBeth, Leon Sun, Sabrina Cascos Peterson, Mary Sweeters, Eric See, Dani Gonzalez, Mashael Majid, Susan Weiss, Juan Gamboa, Jr., Amy Sonnie, Felicia Gustin, Mickey Ellinger, Betty Pazmino, Charlie Fredrick, Aimee Molina Cuellar, Becki Ming-Yoke Hom.

Sponsored by: Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad and LeftRoots.

Revolutionary Strategies to Beat the Rising Right Wing

Revolutionary Strategies to Beat the Rising Right Wing, was a nationwide conference call organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Sunday October 30, 2016.

What's the nature of this right-wing threat? What has this election cycle changed about the political terrain we're fighting on? How do we need to prepare for whats coming after the election? Hear about these crucial questions from our panel of top political strategists, including Nelini Stamp, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Linda Burnham, and Sendolo Diaminah.

Those invited, on Facebook included N'Tanya Lee.

Now What? Defying Trump and the Left's Way Forward

Now What? Defying Trump and the Left's Way Forward was a phone in webinar organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization in the wake of the 2016 election.

Now what? We’re all asking ourselves that question in the wake of Trump’s victory. We’ve got urgent strategizing and work to do, together. Join Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of the Movement for Black Lives and Freedom Road, Calvin Cheung-Miaw, Jodeen Olguin-Taylor of Mijente and WFP, Joe Schwartz of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Sendolo Diaminah of Freedom Road for a discussion of what happened, and what we should be doing to build mass defiance. And above all, how do we build the Left in this, which we know is the only solution to the crises we face?

This event will take place Tuesday November 15, 2016 at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central/6pm Pacific.

Those invited, on Facebook included N'Tanya Lee.

Anti-Trump

Mabel Tsang wrote :Tomorrow I will be heading to DC with a #ItTakesRoots to Grow Resistance Delegation convened by Grassroots Global Justice Alliance / Climate Justice Alliance / Indigenous Environmental Network / Right To The City Alliance because I believe we can create an alternative to Trump's Terror. He stands for racist violence; aggression against women; criminalizing queer, gender non-conforming and transfolks; and detention of and war against immigrants and refugees - in the name of our future and our values.

I believe the alternative exists today. I believe it already exists in my organizing work at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and I believe it exists in our dreams for our collective future. This moment scares me and this moment emboldens me. This moment shows me the need and the proof for powerful actions and bold experimentation. It calls on all of us to act.

With Jane Martin, Vivian Yi Huang, Rachel Lee Holstein, Laiseng Saechao, Malcolm Amado Uono, Hyejin Shim, Sydney Fang, Amee Raval, JingJing He, Alex Tom, Annelisa Luong, Chiravann Uch, Alvina Wong, Miya Yoshitani, Ed Scott, Shina Riane, Eric Mar, Russell Wynne, Nick Mitchell, Saa'un P. Bell, Mee Jung Tsang,, Jin-kyung Kim, Megan Zapanta, Orlie Kapitulnik, Aiko Pandorf, Mei-ying Williams, Nancy Kab Xyooj, Erika Lenhart, Jonathan Ronald Tran, Jen-Mei Wu, Emily Ja-ming Lee, Nadia Khastagir, Shaw San Liu, Stacy Kono, Steve Lew, Sophia Arredondo, Cynthia Fong, Tracey Corder, Salima Hamirani, Jennifer Lee, Lucia Lin, Ellen Choy, Shannon Garth-Rhodes, Kasi Farrar, Joshua Fisher Lee, Feng Kung, N'Tanya Lee, Kenneth Tang, Geordee Mae, Maya Tanaka, Timmy Lu

"Introduction to Black feminism"

"Intro to Black Feminism" hosted by Sendolo Diaminah Cazembe Jackson, and Adrienne Maree Brown.

Tuesday, August 15 at 8:30 PM

Created for Black August Practice Group.

Sendolo Diaminah August 15, 2017;

Black people! Tonight my beloved sister Adrienne Maree Brown is leading a web discussion about Black Feminism as part of a series of Black August political education sessions hosted by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and BOLD.

Those expressing interest on Facebook included N'Tanya Lee.

Amandla Training

Sendolo Diaminah February 1 2018

Hey Black organizers & those who love us: BOLD has re-opened our application period for Amandla, our organizer training program. We have just a few more slots we wanted to make available, so now is your chance if you missed the deadline!

Alicia Garza, Ajamu Dillahunt, Aaron Gamal, Whitney Maxey, Hashim Benford, Ociele Hawkins, Bryan Proffitt, Bennett D. Carpenter, Courtney Sebring, Cazembe Murphy Jackson, Reece Chenault, Charlene Carruthers, Chanelle Croxton, D’atra Jackson, Dove Kent, Fresco Steez DeLaflyy, Maria C. Fernandez, Aiden Riley Graham, Kaji Reyes, Laila Nur, Theo Luebke, Maria Poblet, N'Tanya Lee, Taliba O Njeri, Orisanmi Burton, Quinton Harper, Roberto Tijerina, Mary Hooks, Serena Sebring, Adaku Utah, Vanessa Moses, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Thomas Wayne Walker, Jayanni Elizabeth, Jayda Rasberry, Amber Evans, Dara Cooper, Yotam Marom.

Black Ideological Struggle Webinar

Black Ideological Struggle: Radical, Liberal, Conservative Public · Hosted by Sendolo Diaminah and Cazembe Jackson

Thursday, August 31, 2017 at 8:30 PM

Created for Black August Practice Group

Join Sendolo Diaminah for a conversation about why Black radicals can and must learn how to effectively engage liberal and conservative ideologies among our people.

September 2, 2017. Hey family! Here is the final recording from the Black August webinars! Sendolo Diaminah took lots of patience and creativity breaking down Black Ideological Struggle for us.

Those saying they would attend, on Facebook included N'Tanya Lee.

Strategy team

LeftRoots strategy team, October 2017.

Back left Toussaint Losier, Milena Velis, Soya Jung, Steve Meacham, Rapheal Randall, Front left Maria Poblet, Hannah Jones, N'Tanya Lee, Merle Ratner, Steve Williams

Vietnam

In December, 2017, three LeftRoots cadres—Merle Ratner, N'Tanya Lee, and Rose Brewer—got to spend a few weeks on women’s delegation to Vietnam, one of the few surviving 20th century socialist experiments. On April 19, 2018, the three of them, along with LeftRoots compas and fellow delegates Cathy Dang and Juliet Ucelli, hosted a national LeftRoots hangOut to talk about their experience.

The delegation included US-based movement leaders from the labor movement, Black Lives Matter and national women’s organizations. It was hosted by the Vietnam Women's Union.

Out to Win!

Editors of Issue 1 of Out to Win! included:

Ying-sun Ho, N'Tanya Lee, Mike Leyba, Wende Marshall, Milena Velis, Steve Williams

Spanish translation:

Yahaira Carrillo Rosales, Alex Deane, Rubi Hurta, Luis Lopez, Florencia Manovil, Alejandra Marroquin, Marisol Ocampo, Graciela Viturro

Design: Josh Warren-White.

Black Feminist Organizing School

Paris Hatcher April 18 2019 ·

With Morathi Adams, N'Tanya Lee, Jamala Rogers and Charlene Carruthers.

Trainers at the 2019 Black Feminist Organizing School.

CPA 40th Anniversary

Chinese Progressive Association (San Francisco), August 8, 2012.

N'Tanya Lee with Alicia Garza.