Celebrate Purim: Stories of Courage with Leaders of the Brooklyn Liberation March and Rabbi Samantha Frank - 92Y, New York
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Celebrate Purim: Stories of Courage with Leaders of the Brooklyn Liberation March and Rabbi Samantha Frank

Raquel Willis, Eliel Cruz, and Rabbi Samantha Frank
Raquel Willis and Eliel Cruz

How can we turn moments into movements? How do we build on our successes?

Join leaders of the Brooklyn Liberation March, Raquel Willis and Eliel Cruz, and Rabbi Samantha Frank as we break down the art of storytelling and make connections to the ever-relevant themes of Purim.

On Purim, we celebrate the actions of courageous heroes — and their leadership that inspired community support — that saved the Jewish people from destruction. This Jewish holiday helps us see that each of us has the power to make a significant difference in the world.

The Brooklyn Liberation March was an action demanding justice for Black Trans lives cut short by police brutality and civilian violence. Over 15,000 people attended to rally in support of, demand justice for, and celebrate. You can read more about the demonstration here and on their landing page.

All are welcome to this celebration of courage, defiance, and collective action.

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Raquel Willis

Raquel Willis is a Black transgender activist, award-winning writer, and media strategist …

Raquel Willis

Raquel Willis is a Black transgender activist, award-winning writer, and media strategist dedicated to elevating the dignity of marginalized people, particularly Black transgender people. She has held ground-breaking posts throughout her career including director of communications for the Ms. Foundation, executive editor of Out magazine, and national organizer for Transgender Law Center (TLC).

In 2018, she founded Black Trans Circles, a project of TLC, focused on developing the leadership of Black trans women in the South and Midwest by creating healing justice spaces to work through oppression-based trauma and incubating community organizing efforts to address anti-trans murder and violence.

During her time at Out, she published the Trans Obituaries Project to highlight the epidemic of violence against trans women of color and developed a community-sourced 13-point framework to end the epidemic. This project won a GLAAD Media Award.

Raquel is a thought leader on gender, race and intersectionality. She’s experienced in online publications, organizing marginalized communities for social change, non-profit media strategy, and public speaking while using digital activism as a major tool of resistance and liberation. She will be releasing her debut memoir about her coming of identity and activism with St. Martin’s Press in 2022.

Eliel Cruz

Eliel Cruz is an organizer, speaker, writer, and the Director of Communications for the New York City Anti-Violence Project …

Eliel Cruz

Eliel Cruz is an organizer, speaker, writer, and the Director of Communications for the New York City Anti-Violence Project, an organization dedicated to ending violence against LGBTQ people and HIV-affected communities through free counseling, legal services, advocacy, and education.

Eliel is a co-organizer for the Brooklyn Liberation March: An Action for Black Trans Lives, which drew an estimated 20,000 people in June 2020. Eliel was honored alongside the co-organizers of Brooklyn Liberation with a Stonewall Community Foundation Vision Award. He was recognized in Out Magazine’s #Out100 list for both his work at the New York City Anti-Violence Project and for his pivotal activism in pursuing justice for Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old Afro-Latinx trans woman who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island in June 2019. He is currently directing a documentary on Layleen’s life and the conditions that led to her untimely death.

Eliel has spoken at universities and conferences across the country on issues pertaining to the LGBTQ community and media representation, as well as faith and sexuality. Speaking engagements include Harvard Law School, University of Texas at Austin, MSU Denver, Suffolk University, University of Georgia, Texas A&M, University of Florida, Bowdoin College, New York University, Middlebury College, University of Colorado in Boulder, and more.

His advocacy work has appeared in print on the September issue of Vogue, the front page of The New York Times, and magazines such as Another Man, Gay Times, Garage, and New York Magazine, as well as in digital publications like Dazed, Vox, Seventeen, Buzzfeed, and more. Eliel’s writing can be seen in The Washington Post, Upworthy, NBC News, Mic News, The Advocate, Teen Vogue, HuffPost, The Daily Dot, Everyday Feminism, Sojourners, Details, GQ, Quartz, Rolling Stone, them., Shondaland, The New York Times, and many other outlets.

Eliel is a storyteller. He believes in using the privileges afforded to him and his platform to create space for others to be able to share theirs.

Samantha Frank

Samantha Gayler Frank was raised in Silver Spring, MD. She graduated from Tufts University …

Samantha Frank

Samantha Gayler Frank was raised in Silver Spring, MD. She graduated from Tufts University, where she earned her B.A. in French and Community Health. Prior to becoming a Rabbi, she taught English in France and worked at the NYU Child Study Center in the field of mental health policy. She served as student rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Monessen, PA, rabbinical intern at Yale Hillel: Joseph Slifka Center for Student Life in New Haven, CT, and as rabbinical intern at Temple Micah in Washington DC. She was honored to be a Bonnie and Daniel Tisch Rabbinical Fellow and recipient of the BeWise Fellowship for entrepreneurship, as well as a Jewish Innovation Fellow at the 92Y!

At 92Y, Rabbi Frank is delighted to serve as the Director of Jewish Education. In her role, she oversees ATiD, our Jewish after school program, as well as teaching and leading holiday celebrations and classes. She also serves as Rabbinic Fellow at Temple Micah in Washington, DC. Rabbi Frank is co-creator of the Jewish educational resource, @Modern_Ritual (on Instagram and at www.modernritual.org). In addition to thinking creatively about how to share the beauty and meaning of Jewish tradition, Samantha loves all pasta. She lives in Brooklyn.

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