Hey Friend,

Did you know that each year URGE gathers a cohort of amazing young people for the Our Folks: Voices of LGBTQ+ Youth of Color program? 

Yep, it’s true!

Every week, from September through April, these folks produce original content for URGE’s Choicewords blog. Everything produced by cohort members is done so using the reproductive justice framework covering topics ranging from economic and climate justice to racial justice, comprehensive sex education, and everything in between.

We are in the midst of a global uprising for Black lives. This movement for racial justice — and more importantly Black liberation — is being led by young people. Young people who are Black and brown, queer and trans, and low-income have and continue to do the grassroots work necessary to create a just world.

As a political home led by and for young folks, we know the power of our stories. It is through these stories that we can change policy, culture, and lives. That’s why the Our Folks program exists and why we are thrilled to announce the 2020-2021 cohort!

Aimaloghi Eromosele is a Black, queer woman and womanist community organizer based out of the Rio Grande Valley.  

She began her advocacy work in 2016, organizing a Black Lives Matter Solidarity action and cohort in McAllen, TX. Since then, she has been an active voice in her community, organizing around racial justice, reproductive justice, mental health, and LGBTQ rights as student leader for URGE, Deputy Digital Organizer for Texas Rising, and serving on Advocates for Youth, Young Womxn of Color for Reproductive Justice Leadership Council. She believes in radical healing as a tool for Justice. She is currently conducting research exploring African American mental health through the lens of intergenerational trauma, and believes it is necessary that we apply transformative justice practices in our organizing to reach our liberated futures.  It is her goal to one day obtain a PhD in Clinical Psychology with the intent of founding a no-cost practice centering Black youth. 

Instagram and Twitter: @aimaloghi

Kirsten Hernandez is a writer and activist in the Los Angeles area. During her time as a student at California State University, Long Beach, she created several campaigns fighting for the rights of disabled students and survivors of sexual assault. After graduating with a degree in political science and American sign language linguistics in 2019, she joined the Elizabeth Warren campaign and worked to increase the visibility of Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities in politics.

Instagram: @Hell_in_hightops

Nneka Ewulonu is a third year law student at the University of Georgia School of Law with interests in reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, and drug policy. Prior to law school, they achieved bachelors degrees in Biology and French from the University of Georgia. They have written on topics such as the sexualization of women of color and abstinence only sex education in the state of Georgia. During their collegiate career, Nneka engaged in on-campus activism through the initiative UGAVotes, which saw more than 2,600 people cast early ballots in the 2016 election.

In law school, Nneka has interned at the East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, California and has interned remotely with the ACLU of North Carolina. They participated in their school’s Community Health Law Partnership Clinic and will participate in the inaugural semester of the First Amendment Clinic this fall. They have written about the criminalization of same sex marriage in Nigeria as well as the legalization of marijuana in the state of Georgia. After law school, Nneka will use their passion for racial and gender equity to pursue a career in impact litigation and public policy.

Lauren Senwo is an undergraduate student at UAB studying public health and filmmaking. She's passionate about storytelling especially when surrounding marginalized individuals and hopes to continue this art in the near future. Her goal is to create awareness, education, and bring representation to those that live at the intersection of race, sexuality, and gender. She's done work with Jefferson County Memorial Project in restoring markers for victims of racial violence in Birmingham and as well as highlighting Black LGBTQ+ individuals through panel discussions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She's excited to continue this work with URGE’s Our Folks: Voices of LGBTQ+ Youth of Color and further amplify voices of the unheard.  

Twitter: @iaurensen

Instagram: @lauren.senwo

Larada Lee is an Organizer. Lover. Believer. Radical. Abolitionist. Womanist. She is currently a 3rd year at Ohio State majoring in Psychology with a minor in Global Public Health. I organize around liberation and abolition in Columbus, Ohio and primarily with Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity as a voter engagement. My passions include youth organizing, abortion storytelling, coalition building, and reproductive justice. I am a devoted mother to all of my plants, two parakeets, and doggy.

Instagram: iamlaradalee

Twitter: Larryluvsplantz

Solidarity,

Kenyetta, Communications Manager

She/Her

URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity