WHO WE ARE

Executive Director

I am a mother, a multi-disciplinary artist, an organiser, a strategist, a builder. My purpose feels rooted in collective liberation, joy, and the ongoing healing process. I believe the revolution begins within, “transform yourself to transform the world”, as Grace Lee Boggs puts it. I’m passionate about connecting theory to practice - in community. With all the joy and messiness that this work entails. My work is grounded in love for all beings and it is informed by lived experience and Black Feminist praxis. I am inspired by the invitation to dream audaciously through speculative fiction and emergent strategy. My approach to organising involves moving at the speed of trust, going deep rather than wide and shallow, and it is rooted in the principles of anti-oppression, collectivism and accountability.

Over the past 14 years I have held various paid and voluntary roles across the public and not for profit spheres; from campaigning & communications, community counselling, and grassroots community organising to youth work.

I am here for cross-movement spaces that enable deep and long lasting connections to be made and sustained for generations. I am here for movement building, solidarity, joy and collective healing. I am here for collaboratively experimenting, learning and building the radical infrastructure that our movements for collective liberation need.

Programme & Kinship Director

I'm the founder of the Black Feminist Bookshop, where I host book clubs, pop-ups, and events to nurture and share ideas for radical social change. Resistance, imagination, and care motivate my work. I cultivate spaces for learning, knowledge-sharing, connection, and conversation for Black women, femmes, girls, and non-binary people. I recognise the importance of holding safe and generative spaces.

As a queer Black feminist and grassroots organiser dedicated to empowering Black women, femmes, girls, and non-binary people, I advocate for Black liberation, global justice, and intersectionality. Radical politics and creating meaningful partnerships are woven into my practice.

In addition to starting and running the Black Feminist Bookshop, I co-managed a radical left-wing bookshop in London, have been a member of various grassroots groups, and regularly collaborate with grassroots organisations, activists, and mobilisers who are contributing to the UK's racial and social justice movements. I've been following KIN since its inception, and I'm glad to be part of a team that's dedicated to building a sustainable Black liberation movement.

Communications Lead and Events Producer

I am an artist and researcher, a holder of projects. I create nourishing spaces for people to gather, dream and rest. This work is rooted in love, knowledge-building and care.

I like spending time in nature and noticing the lessons it can teach us through interdependence and its alternative forms of time. I founded and ran a walking group for Black people in Scotland Walking While Black, and I currently coordinate an alternative learning programme for artists to come together, play and ask questions. 

I am practicing leisure and slowness.

KIN has a holistic approach to collaborating with communities and building radical infrastructure, and I am so excited to be part of the team.

Executive Assistant

I am a highly skilled and experienced Executive Assistant and Support Worker with a specialist focus on Neurodivergence.

Driven by lived experience, I have dedicated my career to advocating for and building on the capacity of Neurodivergent children, adults, and, in particular, leaders of Black-owned businesses.

I am passionate about creating inclusive spaces that invite individuals and organisations to thrive. I approach my work with operational expertise, empathy, and a committment to meaningful impact. I thrives in environments that promote joy, happiness, health, and healing.

Finance Manager (MoneyPad)

Bookkeeper (MoneyPad)

Consulting Finance Director (MoneyPad)

HR Consultant (A Little Bit of HR)

Consulting HR Director (A Little Bit of HR)

Branding, Design. Tech Infrastructure support

Consultant

Coaching and Facilitation Support

KIN's Board Chair, Ayeisha is a social justice trainer, writer and broadcaster based in London, UK. She is one of two Executive Directors of NEON (the New Economy Organisers Network) and is currently undertaking a PhD at Goldsmiths University of London looking at neoliberalism and social movements. In 2017 she co-founded KIN, a network for Black activists working for collective liberation, and she sits on the boards of Common Wealth and the Institute for Public Policy Research. Ayeisha is passionate about Black liberation and alternative economic systems, and centres anti-oppression in her approach to organising for power. Ayeisha also presents the Weekly Economics Podcast, Economics with Subtitles for BBC R4 and The Why Factor for BBC World Service.

Zahra is a queer Black feminist from Lewisham, South East London. After living abroad for some years, she delved into the city's political landscape via Take Back The City an anti-gentrification and popular education political project which offered an intervention into local elections. She co-founded a project called Our Fathers and Us which looked into Black British fatherhood and the myths and realities of Black communities and their relationships to fatherhood.Since then she got involved with the community food movement, climate justice work and land-based activism, especially where it is led by people of colour and working class people.

Heeding Malcolm X’s wisdom that “Revolution is based on land [and] land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality”, she begun to work within a framework of understanding that encompasses Black liberation as global land struggle and a fight against white supremacist separation and disconnect from self, other and the land. She follows in the footsteps of her pan-African parents in believing that global solidarity for Africa and the diaspora can unlock the transformative potential humanity needs to heal from the traumas of white supremacist hetero-patriarchy. Dreaming of a thriving independent media sector and joyful black children make her happy.

Kennedy spent the best part of a decade campaigning and organising for social and economic justice across various issues and movement spaces from housing to migration. They are one of the founders of Kinfolk Network and were a founding member of Resourcing Racial Justice and Covid Mutual Aid UK. Currently, they are freelancing working with individuals, collectives and organisations and their existing wisdom to facilitate strategy development, research processes, mediation and more. Kennedy is also a trainee counsellor at the Gestalt Centre in London.

Find them on socials @kennedysrwalker