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I’m Marie Nahikian, this is the Usable Past, and I tell stories and talk to community leaders about how people have come together and organized to create better lives for as many people as possible.

Marie Nahikian | Show Host

I’ve been a community organizer for 40 years. In the 1960’s I organized civil rights, worker rights in cafeterias and motels, anti-war and peace marches. On the Usable Past Podcast, you will hear about securing voting rights in DC with advocates like Senator Ted Kennedy, getting WPFW Jazz and Justice Pacifica radio station on the air, organizing to pass laws to control housing displacement, rents, condominium conversions, real estate speculation profits, and support tenants’ first right to purchase their housing. We formed a homeless advocacy coalition and a city-wide tenant union, built affordable housing in North Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Queens.  I worked for the Feds during President Obama’s years and helped non-profits and local government to buy and develop foreclosed properties to create low income housing.