Kazembe Balagun (he/him) is the son of Ben and Millie, a Native New Yorker, first generation born out of the South. He grew up in the Polo Grounds Housing Projects and became politically conscious after the Los Angeles Rebellion in 1992. From 1996-2000 he was a member of The Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!) as a student at Hunter College, a broad multiracial front that sought to extend the legacy of the 1969 CUNY Student movements, fighting for a free, democratic, CUNY. More recently he was the program and outreach coordinator for the Brecht Forum (2008-2013) and project manager for the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung New York Office (2013-2022).