Activism
I am a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion NYC, the New York City chapter of the global decentralized nonviolent revolutionary movement for climate and ecological justice.​​​
Extinction Rebellion (XR) aims to inspire mass nonviolent civil disobedience with the goal of prompting a transfer of power into anti-capitalist democratic assemblies which would, in turn, immediately enact emergency political measures commensurate with current planetary crises. During my time with XR NYC, I have acted as the group's spokesperson, I have served as president of the board of directors for our nonprofit fundraising corporation, and I have been arrested for participating in nonviolent protest of corporate complicity with ecocide. Presently, I am no longer active in the movement, though I continue to support its original purpose.
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I have written about some of my experiences with and ideas about XR in a book chapter entitled "Extinction Rebellion: A Great Refusal for the Anthropocene," available in The Marcusean Mind (Routledge 2024).
In June 2019, I testified before the New York City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection in support of Resolution 864 declaring climate emergency, which subsequently passed. In my statement to the resolution’s sponsor, New York City Councilmember Ben Kallos, I linked the resolution with Extinction Rebellion’s demand for governments and corporations to speak truthfully about the climate crisis.
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In April 2022, I was arrested for participating in a nonviolent direct action in Queens. During this action, XR NYC blockaded the distribution facility for a number of major newspapers, including News Corp’s New York Post. This caused a real material disruption to a repressive propaganda organ of the ecocidal corporatocracy, and it prompted predictably reactionary retaliation through a series of attempted smears of XR NYC and individual members within the group.