Q&A with Artists Athletes Activists Executive Director, Power Malu
We were excited to sit down with 2025 Freedom Awards honoree, Artists Athletes Activists (AAA) to learn more about their grassroots organization and their commitment to serve vulnerable groups across New York City.
Q: Can you share how the Artists Athletes Activists collective got started?
A: It actually started around community organizing, at a time when we were trying to figure out how to bring resources to the community and do better outreach to existing organizations in our neighborhood. When we began these efforts, we quickly realized that a lot of people in our community did not even know that there were certain services available to them. That directed us to the need to work with various organizations, helping them with outreach, and connecting with our community.
Personally, I wanted to do something where it was specific towards my passion, as I'm an artist, an athlete, and an activist. I have a big running community, and I perform as a theater artist and I try to bring all of those things together.
The spark for collective activism was lit in 2017 when we organized the first “Run For Justice” at #9 Bleecker Street starting and ending at Overthrow New York. It was July 17th 2017 on World Day For International Justice. Our community was filled with anxiety and fear due to anti-immigrant rhetoric. It was important to gather members of our running community to show up as a form of resistance and learn about how we can protect one another and keep each other safe. In attendance were a couple of immigrant lawyers and one of the speakers was immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir who spoke about his work on immigration and keeping the community safe. The event was successful and became the inspiration behind the running community using our platform to not only bring people together for runs but also to support issues around social justice and human rights.
On September 17th 2017 Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and devastated the island. I felt this urge to help the people in Puerto Rico; and simultaneously I started hearing all of these reports about how the aid wasn't getting to the people. So, I connected with the people in New York City, within the diaspora, and we started collecting donations. There were a few organizations that we connected with, and ultimately we collectively sent about 12 to 13 containers to Puerto Rico. We connected with the head of the truckers’ union in Puerto Rico to bypass all the politics. They helped us get the containers released from the port, and we connected with different barrio leaders from the different municipalities, who were able to tell us where the need was. And we made sure that the aid got to the hardest hit areas that FEMA said they couldn't get to.
From there, I connected with Adama Bah, who is actually formerly undocumented, and she was also working around food justice and that’s how we met. When the migrants started coming into New York she reached out to me and said “Can you come support the people that are coming into New York City?” We have been assisting with everyone that's been coming in for the past two and a half years, since August of 2022, when we started getting a rush of buses and people coming from all ports of entry. We essentially became the organization that was consistently receiving the people coming in via all ports of entry and advocating for them, irregardless of the port of entry they were entering through. Originally, we focused on just welcoming them, but that transitioned into advocating for them. Through connecting with different people and lawyers, we found others that cared about what was going on and had different skill sets; and brought them into the fold.
We eventually outlasted every city agency and we were the only ones that were welcoming the buses and guiding people through the process of what they needed to do so that they were not just left in limbo. That’s how we started and since then we have evolved into full case management, wrap around services, and are able to refer people to different services that they need currently at our R.O.C.C Resources Opportunities, Connections Community at Metro Baptist Church.
Q: Artists Athletes Activists origin story is inspiring and interesting. It is truly impressive that you all were able to figure out the logistics needed to aid communities in Puerto Rico immediately after the Hurricane, when FEMA was unable to readily do so. Would you say that community organizing was at the root of your success?
A: We definitely learned from many of the grassroots organizations on the island doing mutual aid aka Apoyo Mutual. They set up brigades and we would join them with food and supplies and go deliver to the hardest hit areas and connect with the people. We hope some things will rile up the people to realize that they don't need to take this kind of abuse, and they should be able to fend for themselves. And then it creates leaders and it creates community. I think that that's what we need to do here in the United States. People need to come together, get back to organizing and helping each other out, and really doing away with the exterior forces that are always trying to put fear in people. So that's what we do at our community center. It’s a place where the community can gather. It's a great example of what needs to happen everywhere so that people can feel like they're united.
Q: Please share more about the services and programs provided by Artists Athletes and Activists.
A: The partnership that we have with the Metro Baptist Church allows us to use the space to coordinate with different service providers. We have lawyers that work on an array of cases, whether it's asylum, temporary protective status, helping people with their work authorization, or special immigration, juvenile status. We have people that assist with shelter and housing issues; as many of the families that come to us for assistance are unhoused.
A major problem that continues is that people simply do not know what services and benefits are available to them. We are able to step in and provide this education, and assist them with an array of services. Within the church, we have a kitchen and that space is used for an organic type of therapy session, where people are just able to share and talk while they're cooking. Our colleague Rachel heads up this program and she oversees the kitchen. Somebody may come from Guinea or Venezuela and they have a favorite dish, and they'll tell us the ingredients, and we go out and get them and then they get to cook for all the people that are coming to the center that day. Within the space, we are able to break bread together and people are able to eat nutritious, home cooked meals.
Many of the volunteers who assist with these communal meals are actually former clients who we’ve helped to get work authorization, and into a work program where they can work and contribute to social security. There are those who have been granted asylum status, or are in the process to receive it; and they come back and they want to volunteer to assist others.
In addition, we maintain a food pantry on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. From this location we are able to serve produce to low income families and have produce delivered to different housing complexes to serve as many families as possible. Volunteers also assist us with this endeavor by bagging the produce and managing the lines of people coming for food.
We also have a youth football (“soccer”) program, which is going into its second year. Participation in the program has proven to be therapeutic, allowing kids to connect and just be kids, and providing an escape for the parents who are able to see the joy that the kids have playing. But, even in this setting the advocacy work doesn’t stop, attending parents often bring their questions, concerns and immigration documents to the games, and we are prepared to answer their questions and help them fill out any paperwork.
Additionally, we do a lot of work with special immigration juvenile status. We’ve had many people sending kids to us when they realize the youth are here alone. Since they are unaccompanied, they must be connected with a guardian, so we can pair them with a lawyer to help with their case. We advocated for a youth facility, and we got three floors that were allocated to young people, which we use to better disseminate information and get kids resources, make sure that they're in school and get them everything else that they may need. When adults come here it’s hard enough to figure out what to do, so imagine teenagers that are here alone. They need our help.
We also advocate to get families reunited. We contact the Office of Refugee Resettlement when a mom comes to us and says “I was separated from my child at the border. They're in a group home in another state”. We get in touch with the social worker and we try to figure out how to facilitate the reunification. We have a lot of new moms, and moms to be. So we do a distribution of strollers, diapers, baby wipes, things that they need and that can help them get around the city easier. Finally, we have ESL classes.
Q: Communities are more vulnerable than before, which includes the risk for exploitation. So how familiar was your organization with the risk factor of human trafficking and commercial exploitation, which includes poverty, marginalization, and immigrant status prior to working with PACT?
A: It definitely was on our radar. We knew about these things because people would tell us their stories when we would assist them, and it was clear that they had experienced exploitation and trafficking. The stories we heard included those where people described how they or family members escaped certain situations while crossing the border; and after arriving in the U.S. We realized that there were so many traumatic experiences that they were going through.
We needed to connect with people that have experience dealing with these situations or expertise on addressing human trafficking. We had already begun referring clients to doctors and therapists to deal with the physical and mental health impact of what they experienced.
So, yes- absolutely. We heard about a lot of sexual assault, a lot of trafficking. We didn't have a go-to person or organization that could actually speak to these needs. We were aware of the problem from early on when people were coming in for assistance, but we did not have the resources to support them. This is why partnering with PACT has been beneficial.
Q: Did you find it difficult to understand how other providers could work with this population and community members, but not be aware of their experiences with trafficking and commercial exploitation?
A: Yes, it seems like an issue of denial. It has to be, because when we are finally able to connect with the people that we serve, we’re not the first service providers that they approached about trafficking. They inform us that they spoke to others, even shelter providers and when the issue is occurring within the shelter, and the shelter providers didn’t do anything about it.
Because we have been willing to hear them and address the issue, we have become a trusted organization that people come to, and they know that someone is going to listen and do their best to help them.
Q: What were your initial reactions to the notification that Artists Athletes Activists was being nominated for the Freedom Awards this year?
A: Anytime that we get recognized by our peers or another organization that's been doing great work long before we have, it's always a plus and a blessing.
We do this work because we want to help as many people as we can, and we always say our best reward is when people that we have helped come back and say that they want to volunteer with us.
That's why the majority of our volunteers are people that have recently immigrated. When we help them, they want to give back and help the next ones coming behind them.
It’s all about how we may be able to connect with good people and carry out good work. And being recognized by our peers really helps to boost morale; when this work often leaves us feeling alone and somewhat overwhelmed.
Q: It really helps that we now have people that we can actually call, and we know that they're trusted and they're going to help point us in the right direction.That is what we've gotten from the partnership with PACT.
A: And being recognized for the Freedom Award shows their respect for our work and again boosts morale. We're a small team so we like to celebrate our victories. When we get families that come to us and say they got their work authorization it's good to know we helped the family and that they were able to get that or get their asylum. We’re used to celebrating amongst each other and then getting right back to work, so getting recognized by another organization is very meaningful to us.
Q: Is there anything that you are looking forward to the most about even attending the benefit this year?
I am looking forward to connecting with people who can understand the work that we do, and be able to get rid of any doubts or misconceptions that people may have about working with immigrant families and individuals. I look forward to meeting good people that want to support and be part of the work we do.
Q: Any other final thoughts that you would like to share?
A: We're not going to stop what we're doing. We're just going to keep doing the work and helping as much as we can to do away with the fear mongering. We are on the verge of changing our organization name to reflect more of our specific work. Myself and Colleagues, Candice Braun and Rachel Tigay will always be connected to Artists Athletes Activists but our new organization name will be R.O.C.C which stands for Resources Opportunities Connections Community.
I like to say get “away from the ego system and get with this ecosystem.” We have to let people know we all have a part to play in this and it works together. It's not just one individual or one entity. It's all of us coming together and supporting each other.