Contributor:
Zarinah Agnew
Zarinah Agnew appeared in the video for our Kickstarter campaign, and their work is mentioned in two separate articles in Issue One. Z is a neuroscientist by training and does all sorts of interesting-sounding work in that field (outlined in a section on their website titled Neurotrash), but what many people around San Francisco know Z for is their tireless devotion to radical politics, to supporting co-living spaces, to prison abolition, and alternative justice.
Zarinah was instrumental in creating Haight Street Commons, a Bay Area organization that brings together people from different co-living spaces and helps them cross-pollinate (they have a Patreon you could donate to!). Haight Street Commons also likes to open-source its resources, like this guide to starting a new co-living space. Many of Z's other commune-related projects are also outlined on their site.
As of this writing, much of Z's effort is going towards organizing Sigil, which describes itself as an "autonomous, self-determined intentional community, built around transformation and empowerment, with and for the formerly incarcerated community, manifesting alternative justices approaches and values." It is a co-living space that's half composed of formerly incarcerated people, and half people who have never been incarcerated — a deeply empathic radical re-entry system.
Transparency Notes
This profile was written by Lydia Laurenson, editor in chief of The New Modality.