The Usable Past with Marie Nahikian
Veteran community organizer Marie Nahikian hosts The Usable Past, where activists share their stories of past and present organizing for better housing, food, banks, jobs, environmental and social justice. A Brooklyn resident, Marie most recently worked with U.S. Housing & Urban Development under President Obama and has participated in building 5,000 affordable homes in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. Marie has been a neighborhood, civil rights, housing and labor organizer, a community journalist, and in 1977 was a founder of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio in Washington, DC.
- Update frequency
- every 88 days
- Average duration
- 36 minutes
- Episodes
- 15
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2022
Philadelphia's Garden Path AdVENTURES 2022
In this episode, The Usable Past with Marie Nahikian connects the 2022 explosion of young bipoc, lgbt, Black and Latino women who are gardeners, food producers, investors & entrepreneurs to the rich …
Earth Day 2021-Where are We Now?
The Venture Café conversation, EARTH DAY 2021-Where Are We Now is focused on how the growing levels of bad air, water, fracking and fossil fuel impacts the lives of people who live in Philadelphia & …
Episode 12: Brooklyn Underhill Stories: All Global Soul
Our windows framed Underhill Avenue. We saw everything. Cars lost tires & hubcaps, shots fired, Labor Day eating roti, goat & jerk, Primrose's rum punch, our son dancing in W. Indian Children's parad…
Episode 11: Daughter of Brooklyn Finds the Circus
Susan is an aerial artist, dancer and choreographer, an international circus star, a black woman who went to Brooklyn public schools, graduated from Stanford University and worked on the human genome…
Episode 10: Special Edition-MY U.S. Capitol 1-06-2021
Over 20 years, Marie Nahikian had distinct and personal experiences within the U.S. Capitol building. This special edition describes how the U.S. Capitol Police were always in control and that it is …
Episode 9: Brooklyn Moves Water
This is an only in Brooklyn story about building community in the most unexpected places. Ellen Dede, the organizer, has followed Torello Cabrol's water aerobics class for over 20 years; she is join…
Episode 8: The Usable Past: Shirley Chisholm: Founding Mother of Contemporary Black Politics
Episode 7: Feet to the Fire-Yale Union Organizers Know How
At Yale University, clerical & technical workers organized Local 34 with help from the blue-collar workers in UNITE-Local 35. With strikes in 1984 and 2003, the Yale "non-academic" work force in 202…
PRELUDE: Earth Day 1970-2020
The 1970 event is viewed as a Prelude to Earth Day, one of the very earliest national environmental protests in February 1970 before Earth Day in April. Marie Nahikian hosts this podcast and was the …
What's the Difference if We don't Wake Up
This episode begins with 1970 national conference/protest about looming environmental crisis, a prelude to the first Earth Day and is contrasted with 50 years later witnessing the October 2019 Climat…
3 Southern White Sisters
“With all deliberate speed” 3 Southern white sisters experience 1960 Woolworth Lunch Counter Sit-Ins, 1967 Kathleen Cleaver encounter & Coretta Scott King interview, high school desegregation violenc…
The Atlanta Invitation
An invitation and plane ticket to the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro to attend a "higher education" conference that was actually a SNCC organizing conference in 1…
Community Organizers: 1968-2018 Crossovers
How community organizers make life commitments to social change and benefit from inter-generational leadership.
Strong people do not need strong leaders, but change needs strong community organizers.
Community Organizing 101: How Not to Organize a Community Garden
Marie Nahikian, long time community organizer, tells story of one of her earliest organizing strategies that did not work and the lesson she learned from community residents.