An Arab-American activist, I have coordinated youth programming sites throughout Manhattan, worked as a teacher, and recently completed my law degree. I’ve handled budgets and raised funds for many organizations. I’m running with Justice and Unity (www.justiceunity.org), and look forward to working to restore the station to its mission.
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suzanne@justiceunity.org * (212) 591-2111
I am proudly running for the WBAI Station Board with the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org). WBAI plays a crucial role in supporting local and global movements for justice by providing quality news and cultural programming accountable to communities and their movements. We must ensure that WBAI continues to fulfill this mission by maintaining its independence from corporate influence and ensuring that its work reflects the values on which it was founded.
I began listening to WBAI while I was in college, organizing against the first U.S. war against Iraq. I was thrilled to find an alternative, critical source of news about U.S. foreign policies. The station was instrumental in supporting my confidence to challenge the war even in very conservative spaces.
My family moved from the Middle East to New York in the early 1970s. I grew into my role as an activist/organizer owing to exposure to both the Arab diasporan experience and the blatant, inherent racial injustices in my Yonkers neighborhoods and schools.
For ten years, I taught secondary school in NYC and Egypt. I also coordinated youth programming sites throughout Manhattan. My experiences helped me develop as a community activist focused on anti-militarization and police accountability issues, while seeing the global connections. I later moved to Chicago, where I became a lead organizer for an Arab American community organization. I oversaw organizing and advocacy in cooperation with our membership and community board. I worked on campaigns around post–9/11 policies and prosecutions, racial profiling, police accountability, social welfare rights, and immigrant rights. In 2006, while in Venezuela, I was inspired by meeting the boards of community-controlled radio and TV stations. As an educator and organizer, I have handled budgets and raised funds through many creative endeavors. I hope to bring those experiences to the WBAI LSB.
I recently completed my law degree at CUNY and have begun working on a law-enforcement accountability campaign with DRUM, a South Asian organizing group in Queens. I will also begin offering community-based legal services through a Manhattan office.
Throughout my work as an organizer, I have always sought cross-community collaboration – just as WBAI did for many years. But the station has severely eroded that collaboration since last year’s arbitrary management replacement. The one-third cut in time for Wakeup Call has deprived community movements of a major audience for their information. We in Justice and Unity believe in a just media accountable to communities seeking social justice. We believe that WBAI is the only NYC radio station that can provide this. I’m delighted to be running for the WBAI LSB and look forward to working to restore the station to its mission.
Please vote for all the Justice and Unity candidates in this ranking order:
1. Bernard White
2. Suzanne Adely
3. John Brinkley
4. Father Lawrence Lucas
5. Ray Laforest
6. Wellington Echegaray
7. Sharonne Salaam
8. Linda Bergnes
9. Myriam Decime
10. Carlos Canales
11. Sarah Klepner
12. Henry Hagins
13. Eugene Hamond
suzanne@justiceunity.org * (212) 591-2111
1. Why do you want to be on the Local Station Board (LSB)?
I began listening to WBAI in 1990 when the U.S. was at war in Iraq. The existence of an alternative, critical, and credible news source like WBAI was instrumental in my choice to organize against the war. As an information resource, the station confirmed my criticisms of U.S. policies, and as part of an on-air community, I learned that I was not alone in the struggle. I want to participate on the LSB in order to ensure that WBAI continues to play a role in encouraging all of us to think critically, to dissent, and to build community.
2. How do you envision the LSB working with the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI staff and listener members?
Together, we should take a step back to reflect on the mission, values, and principles of WBAI, as a media space that practices justice, and on our common struggles. Then we can ask ourselves to what extent the station challenges the structural and institutional racism of our time, promotes principles of anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, and anti-imperialism, and promotes the empowerment of communities in the tri-state area. What is not being reported? What is being reported in a way that hinders these values? The LSB, Foundation, and staff should create a process in which membership can lead us into this critical perspective with an eye to transformative change.
3. How can WBAI better serve the community? Please define community.
I would define a community as tangible and abstract connections among individuals, groups, and ideas that inherently overlap. Community spaces can be defined by race, ethnicity, geography, religion, ideologies, nation, gender, etc. Ideally, we would be able to create spaces where these identities can comfortably intersect.
I think it is important to study other models of community media. In 2006 I traveled to Venezuela, where I had the chance to meet community boards that ran various radio and television programs and visited the sets of these shows as well. I think it would be helpful to send a WBAI membership/staff/board delegation to Venezuela (and maybe elsewhere) to learn about the model, even with all its criticisms.
I also think WBAI needs to go out to the different geographical parts of its large listening area and hold community forums on current issues concerning social justice. This is a great way to both build listenership and nourish programming ideas that will better serve communities in greatest need of hard-hitting coverage.
4. Describe some actions you would take to increase the influence of the station in underrepresented communities and to increase the diversity of the listening
audience.
I think WBAI should form a team willing to attend community events, request time to present information about the station within the programs of various constituencies, and seek community groups’ membership and involvement in the station, including possible co-sponsorship of station events. As I answered in #3 above, I also think the station should organize its own community forums, focusing on communities with the least access to independent media.
I would also like to see something resembling community media committees representing different sectors (such as a committee of youth activists) who come together to consider how WBAI can better serve them. These ideas should be brought to the Board for implementation in collaboration with management, and the committees can either be revolving or function as subcommittees of the Board.
5. What sources of funding, other than listener donations, do you feel WBAI should solicit? Do you have any ideas with respect to improving the current funding mechanisms?
I have experience creating fundraising events and would bring this experience to the organizing of such events for WBAI. I believe there are many prominent speakers, musicians, and other cultural workers from a wide range of communities who could be organized to present forums and concerts. With both on-air promotion and inexpensive community advertising, events such as these could raise considerable amounts of money for the station. ?
6. Please state briefly the skills, experience, educational background, work history, organizational affiliations, areas of community service, areas of interest and expertise that you would bring to the Pacifica network as a member of the Local Station Board.
For ten years, I was a secondary-school teacher in New York and Egypt. I also served as program coordinator for youth programming sites throughout Manhattan. My time in the Middle East and my activism in the U.S. led me to see the global nature of many issues. I became involved in many anti-war and anti-police brutality campaigns in New York. I later moved to Chicago, where I took a position as a lead organizer for an Arab American community-based organization. In that position, I oversaw the organizing and advocacy aspects of the organization in cooperation with our membership and community board. I worked on various campaigns around post–9-11 policies and prosecutions, racial profiling, police accountability, social welfare rights, and immigrant rights, among other projects. Both as am educator and as an organizer, I have handled budgets and developed funds through many creative means. I hope to bring those skills to the WBAI LSB.
I recently completed my law degree at the City University of New York and have begun working on a law enforcement accountability campaign with DRUM (Desis Rising and Up and Moving), a South Asian organizing group based in Queens, N.Y. Soon, I will also begin offering community-based legal services through a Manhattan office.
Besides my work with DRUM, my current organizational affiliations include Al-Awda NY (The Palestine Right to Return Coalition), Arab Movement of Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ – National), and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) at CUNY Law School.
7. On which Local Station Board committees are you interested in actively serving? If you are a current Local Station Board member, on which committees do you currently serve?
I am interested in working on the Programming Committee, in order to work on maintaining the station’s adherence to the Pacifica mission and its responsibility to address the broadcasting needs of the disenfranchised communities in the tri-state area.
8. If you are currently on the Board and wish to be re-elected please describe your 3 year experience on the LSB. What did you accomplish? What were the obstacles you faced? Do you envision any change in the next three years if you are re-elected?
Not applicable.
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