Who organizes Bay Area Solidarity Summer?
Bay Area Solidarity Summer is organized by a volunteer group of progressive activists committed to supporting and mentoring the next generation of young South Asian organizers.
Our core collective works year-round doing planning and logistics, and most sessions are run by invited trainers and guests who reflect a diversity of issues, experiences, and identities. Our core organizers for 2022 include:
Our core collective works year-round doing planning and logistics, and most sessions are run by invited trainers and guests who reflect a diversity of issues, experiences, and identities. Our core organizers for 2022 include:
Anu Mandavilli (she/her)
Anu Mandavilli has been involved in social justice work with community organizations, social movements, and labor unions in India and the U.S. She was part of the Mining Zone Peoples’ Solidarity Group research collective, working with communities in Orissa, India, fighting land grabs by steel giant POSCO. She has worked on campaigns around Hindu nationalism and corporate accountability with Friends of South Asia and the Free Binayak Sen campaign. Locally, she works with the San Jose Peace and Justice Center and the Coalition for Justice and Accountability towards civilian oversight of the SJPD.
Anirvan Chatterjee (he/him/ও)
Anirvan Chatterjee is a techie, activist, and storyteller. He curates the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, and has been a core organizer with groups like ASATA, Brown and Green, the Desi Queer Helpline, and the Kala Bagai Way campaign. He used to run a tech startup, but now spends his weekends uncovering secret Desi histories.
Arati Warrier (she/they)
Arati Warrier is a poet, youth and community worker, and BASS 2017 alum from Austin, TX, currently living in San Francisco. Their work has been published in the Academy of American Poets, BOAAT Journal, The Shade Journal, and The Rumpus among others. Her social justice lens is informed by equity through literacy, education justice, teachings from the prison abolition movement, art making spaces, and love. She is currently organizing to defund the San Francisco PD.
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Shams-Tabraiz Muzaffar (he/him)
Shams-Tabraiz Muzaffar is a Youth Solidarity Summer alum and has worked with development, humanitarian aid, research, education, and labor organizations in a range of countries including Pakistan, Eritrea, Ghana, South Africa, and the United States. He is also co-director of the forthcoming documentary film Son of a Bug. He loves ice cream and milkshakes.
Asha Mehta (she/her)
Asha Mehta is a facilitator, feminist, writer, and activist. She's currently facilitating a leadership program for reproductive justice leaders in Louisiana, developing curriculum and organizational vision for a BIPOC girls’ empowerment program in San Francisco, and facilitating a collaborative of leaders in SF City government. Asha is a mama of an 11-year old son who steals her heart on the daily, partner to a public defender and abolitionist, and daughter of a wise and feisty mother fighting for life and dignity. She loves humor, sci-fi, swimming, and dancing.
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