Beloved Community,

After 9 years, it’s time for my chapter at Voices for Racial Justice to come to a close.

At the end of 2022 I made the decision to leave Voices to carve space for my art and writing and to make room for the new leadership that will usher in the new direction of this organization and team.

I first came to Voices as a community partner on the Education Equity Organizing Collaborative in my early 20s. About a year later I started working at Voices as a Policy Organizer. 

This journey changed my life. It’s hard to find the right words to express what it has meant to me. The truth is that being part of Voices has been much more than a job. The people I have met taught me so much about bravery, and transformation. About being willing to take risks in principled struggle, and that liberatory practice does not mean an absence of mistakes. I leave with a surplus of memories that tell their own stories of both the beauty and difficulties of multiracial and multicultural organizing for racial justice. I’m grateful to have had Voices as a political and organizing home for these formative years in my life. 

My trajectory at Voices went from co-writing Legislative Report Cards, to founding our youth cultural organizing institute, facilitating organizing cohorts around the state, and integrating a cultural justice framework to how we imagine racial justice organizing and solutions.

In 2019 I agreed to walk into leadership as one of three co-executive directors after our former Executive Director, Vina Kay, transitioned from the organization. We had no idea all the uncertainty and grief that 2020 would kick off within our local and national landscape. And through it all, I feel extremely lucky to have been part of a team that continued to find a path forward, working hard to honor our vision for justice and change. 

As I say goodbye, I’m filled with hope and excitement for the incredible Voices team as they continue to move with dedication and purpose through this transition. It’s exciting to imagine what new leadership will bring to Voices’ collective work for racial justice.

I look forward to seeing you in community! 

In deep gratitude and solidarity,

Gabriella Anaïs