Pronouns: he/him

Jon (he/him) is NAMA's Food Justice Organizer.

he's focusing on supporting the fights of BPOC food providers and movement building to bring more folks into supporting BIPOC resistance. Jon was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and eventually found his way up to Boston, MA (Wampanoag and Massachusett land). In the 5 years Jon has lived in Boston he has spent his time within the music and food/land justice communities.

To Jon, music and activism should be no different. Jon tries to blend the worlds together because if we're trying to build what we want our futures to be, there's not future without art, and art is the vanguard of resistance. In 2019 Jon worked with Rochester City Ballet to created a piece reflecting the trauma induced by modern Individualism called, Tunnel Vision, which he was the composer. He's also in a band The C.O.M.P (Cultures of Mixed People), where they write about the mixed race experience and use it to amplify the message for Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty.

Between performing music at protests, creating shows to raise funds for Palestinian farmers, using their music to radicalize and energize their audiences The C.O.M.P keeps busy in the local organizing scene. Jon has organized actions in Boston around Food/Land justice, Palestinian and Black liberation, Indigenous Sovereignty, and the Climate Crisis.

To end, Jon wants to share a section of lyrics from The C.O.M.P's song 'Come With Us'

Don't let those underneath your skin
Define,
Your mind
Or the, colors within you
There's so many shades
We can see
Not Colorblind
Just free
We're so much more than just the skin they see
We'll keep on fighting till we all get Free