[NEW YORK, NY] Occupy Wall Street activist Jelani Mashariki will announce his candidacy for New York City Council – District 35 at an announcement party at 6pm tonight (9/25/2012) at Brooklyn’s Rustik Tavern [located at 471 Dekalb ave (btwn Kent & Franklin Aves) Brooklyn, NY 11205]
Mashariki is the second candidate to run under the “Bumrush The Vote” banner, the first, congressional candidate George Martinez, made national headlines using Bumrush The Vote’s unique grassroots approach. Mashariki’s candidacy announcement serves as the latest chapter in his life-long story of community organizing and social justice advocacy.
Jalani Mashariki is a Brooklyn native, child of the Crown Heights Youth Collective, a Brooklyn College graduate, an inaugural AmeriCorps volunteer focusing in HIV outreach, an activist with Black Veterans for Social Justice, the Director of Pamoja House Homeless Men’s Shelter, Co-founder of the Global Block Foundation & U.S. Cultural Envoy, an Occupy Wall Street & Occupy the Hood activist, and is currently the Dean of Liberation of the Paul Robeson Freedom School.
The announcement party will feature performances & spoken word from…
George Martinez: The first Occupier Congressional Candidate, Hip-Hop Artist and Co-Founder of Bum Rush The Vote
Job Mashariki: Inaugaral Awardee-NYS Veteran Hall of Fame, Founder of Black Veterans for Social Justice Inc, Lifelong Activist
Jitu Weusi: Lifelong Activist, Educator, Founder of The East
Justin Wedes: Occupy Wall Street activist, Founder and Co-Principal of the Paul Robeson Freedom School
Maisha Morales: Lifelong Activist & 35th District resident
Atchuda Bakr: Lifelong Activist, Union organizer, Owner of Sister’s Community Hardware Store, & 35th District resident
A New Style of Campaign: Teamwork for Change
The Occupy Wall Street camps inspired a global movement of decentralized local assemblies in which people shared stories, resources, and skill sets. As the encampments were met with eviction from authorities the tents and books were scattered but the inertia of the camp’s affinity groups remained. As if one were to whack a hornet nest, the hive was damaged but the collective was sent out into the world with a renewed zeal to challenge systemic injustice. These “Post-Camp” Occupy groups restructured themselves around shared skills or specific issues, and the remainder were a wide spectrum of affinities with varied politics and tactics ranging from groups of advocates on the street who embraced property destruction to parallel movements like Bum Rush The Vote who set their sights on occupying public office as a direct action. Following the organizing template of Zuccotti Park, Bum Rush The Vote relies on a crowd-sourced method of campaigning by pooling the resources of graphic designers, photographers, experts in viral social media campaigns, artist relations, and street teams of D.I.Y. campaigners to move their message to constituents. Moreover,Bum Rush The Vote is a creativity-driven campaign aimed at spending time with constituents and implements this through staging cultural community events such as pop up concerts, neighborhood clean-ups, anti-stop-and-frisk actions, and guerrilla gardening efforts in regions within regions of NYC most plagued by inadequate access to healthy food.
To request a fact sheet, high resolution photos, or to arrange an interview with Jelani Mashariki or a representative of his campaign please contact Campaign Manager Cecily McMillan at cecilymcmillan@gmail.com or via phone at at (404) 468-1034. For more information on Bum Rush the Vote visit http://BumRushTheVote.net for more information on Jelani’s campaign visit http://peopleforjelani.com
