Organizer Jawanza Williams heads VOCAL-NY’s new national chapter
The recently launched VOCAL-US promises to build a national movement, and at the forefront is director of organizing Jawanza James Williams, who plans to reignite progressive movements on a federal level.
VOCAL-US stems from VOCAL-NY (formerly the NYC AIDS Housing Network), a local organization contracted by the city as a leading harm reduction and syringe exchange service provider. The nonprofit also runs campaigns led by people directly impacted by related issues to push for progressive legislation throughout the city and state, including the Challenging Wrongful Convictions Act. Over the past few years, VOCAL expanded in two other states, Kentucky and Texas. Now, the work reaches a national level.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, Williams started his advocacy later in life, but the ingredients were always present to question society’s conventions.
“I’m queer. In a more reductive way back then, you would say I was gay—and I had a lot of homophobic experiences throughout my life, like a lot of queer kids do,” Williams said. “That automatically made me a little bit more sensitive. And also being Black [and attending] a predominantly white elementary school up until third grade, so I had sensitivity to a racial difference at a very young age…and then being queer and becoming more clear that I was gay, around middle school—that always primed me to have a suspicion of norms.”
As a result of those experiences, Williams said, “I’ve always been a defender of people that I think are being wronged, no matter who’s doing it—someone I love the most could be treating someone wrong, and I’m going to hold them accountable…I already tried thinking [about] that. I just didn’t know about organizing or social movements.”
Williams got involved in such efforts while attending Schreiner University as an undergrad, where he started a political group on campus and joined a “green” society. Attending law school was his goal back then, but $5,000 in student debt derailed that dream. Williams worked in fast food after graduation to pay off debt. Then a positive HIV diagnosis coincided with a lack of health insurance due to his father’s retirement.
At age 23, Williams needed a break from mounting financial and social concerns. He took a bus to New York City to visit a friend and ended up finding a place to live, but his housing arrangement fell through after he began receiving health care from the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which requires New York residency. Interrupting HIV treatment can be catastrophic.
Unable to return to Texas without risking his health care, Williams lived in a Harlem shelter. The situation opened his eyes to just how many Black and Brown people experienced homelessness and faced voucher discrimination. But while the lightbulb went off in his head, he felt helpless about his rage.
Williams recalls the fateful day when a VOCAL-NY organizer reached out to him at the shelter. He remembers three knocks. She told him the organization fights to “end AIDS, homelessness, incarceration, and the drug war through community organizing.” It was what he was looking for.
“I signed our clipboard where we collect name, phone number, and address, and they started calling me,” Williams said. “And eventually, I joined the organization. I attended a membership meeting, and just [saw] so many things that I naturally [came] to realize were presented to me very clearly in this organizing context. And once I got a taste of collective power [through] building love, care, compassion, politics, and political education, I just thrived in it.”
Working on a campaign to expand access to local HIV services sealed the deal as an organizer for Williams. With his lived experience, he became a visible member leader for the movement. They ultimately won that campaign after a few years of advocacy. Overnight, 7,000 people became eligible for life-saving services and housing.
These days, Williams is a regular sight behind the bullhorn at protests. He also tackles the world’s problems in the classroom as a doctoral student studying political science.
While Williams now takes his advocacy on a nationwide tour, his work in New York City comes from a special place. For him, it was as much about paying it back as paying it forward. He pointed to the legions of Black and Brown New Yorkers who extended their helping hands when he moved here.
“I’ve been paying them back ever since, through my work,” he said. “New York took care of me, so I’m trying to take care of New York.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
The post Organizer Jawanza Williams heads VOCAL-NY’s new national chapter appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.