MEET KADIATOU TUBMAN (she/they), OUR NEW DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS

We are so excited to welcome Kadiatou to our #NashFam as our new Director of Programs. We were lucky to be able to sit down and chat with Kadiatou to learn more about who they are and their vision for Sadie Nash Leadership Project.

Kadiatou Tubman (she/they) is a writer, public historian, and educator. Professionally, Kadiatou has worked as youth educator and administrator for more than a decade. Her mission is to spread joy through liberation, and her pedagogy centers historical literacy, social justice, and arts education. She received her Bachelor's degree in History and Africana Studies from Union College, and her Master's degree in History Education from Columbia University's Teachers College. Kadiatou formerly served as head of education programs at the Schomburg Center and director of the Schomburg Center's renowned Junior Scholars Program, where she hosted hundreds of programs that served thousands of youth, families, and educators. She is the founder/executive producer of NYC's Black Lives Matter Teen Conference, and the lead producer of the annual Black Comic Book Festival. Her work has been featured on NPR, NBC News, USA Today, CW11 News, PBS NewsHour, TheGrio, and the Urban Education (UEX) Journal.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m Kadiatou Tubman (she/they), I’m an educator, I’m a historian, I love music, and I love to dance. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I like to tell people that I am deeply passionate about liberation, about joy, and about helping people live beautiful and fulfilling lives. 

I want to make the world a better place, and I've found my way of doing that through education. My education from childhood to adulthood has been so liberating. I’ve learned so many different ways to think about the world, my identity, my power, and I’ve wanted to help young people do the same in their own lives. I believe that everyone deserves a great life and everyone deserves to be loved – especially our youth. 

“Being a Black queer woman – I’ve always been a leader, I was just never called one when I was growing up.”

What brings you to Sadie Nash Leadership Project?

I first heard of Sadie Nash in 2013 when I was working at another non-profit doing enrichment work for young people. As soon as I saw the mission, I fell in love. I was immediately drawn to helping young women and gender-expansive young folks lead their own lives. Being a Black queer woman – I’ve always been a leader, I was just never called one when I was growing up. 

It mattered so much to me to see SNLP naming that for young people and giving them the tools, the resources, and the space to be leaders, and then watch them transform the world. I’ve met Nashers throughout my entire career, before applying for this role, who have gone off to do incredible things. I  knew that one day if I could ever work for an incredible organization like that, it would just be a dream come true. I’ve been following Sadie Nash for the past 10 years, and I’m just drawn to this idea of liberation, feminism, and radical freedom. My career, my scholarship, my life’s work, is so aligned with the mission of Sadie Nash. 

I’ve always been a fan of Sadie Nash, looking for the opportunity to support the mission. I tell my students about the program when there are openings or an application. I tell my colleagues – If you don’t know Sadie Nash, I will put you on! No one should live in New York City, in particular, and not know what this organization is and the work it does. 

 Whenever I meet someone who has worked at or with SNLP they have nothing but positive things to say, and no organization is perfect, but everyone I’ve met is so dedicated and committed to improving the organization. It shows that the love and community that Sadie Nash provides is not just for Nashers but also for the staff.  

I truly believe that the work that Sadie Nash is doing is bigger than putting young people in leadership positions – it’s changing the world. I’ve been vicariously living as a Nasher, and to finally be in the same space as Nashers is a dream come true. There aren’t too many organizations that do the work that Sadie Nash is doing and doing it well, with so much organization, so much finesse, and so much joy.

“No one should live in New York City, in particular, and not know what this organization is and the work it does. ”

What do you feel young people need to thrive?

I’m going to narrow it down to three things every young person needs to thrive. One– for their basic needs to be met. Two– a loving and caring space in which they can be themselves. Three- a community of peers and adults who are cheering them on and will support and care for them. 

I say this from personal experience. Whenever I take a look back at my career and where I am as a young professional, I think of people who were able to support me. I grew up very poor in New York City. My mom was a single mom and an immigrant, she struggled to make sure that we had our needs met. We bounced through homeless shelters throughout New York City, and somehow we still had a community of people taking care of us. I had friends and peers who showed up for me and made sure I had confidence, and I consistently had safe spaces where I could be myself. People wanted to hear my voice and know who I was. They didn’t want me to change who I was to be in that space. 

I’m always seeking to replicate that for other people. The beauty of Sadie Nash is that I don’t have to replicate it. It’s already there. That is what is being done– the safe space, the community, the resources, the basic needs met. I always try to draw from my memory of what it was like to be a young person. I’m always pulling from that. I had amazing women and queer mentors, and I would not be here without them. 

People think that youth need so much, but I’ve seen what those three things can do to change the life of a young person. It’s important to give them space to talk, give them space to understand who they are, work through their identity, work through their history and be in community with other young people who love social justice, love feminism, love being queer, and love being themselves. Whenever I provide those three things to young people, I see them thrive. I see them go on to become incredible leaders, changemakers, activists, and artists.

That is what Sadie Nash does. I think that’s what’s drawn me to the organization. Those three things changed my life and saved my life. I don’t think I would have gone to college, graduated from Columbia, or become a director at the Schomburg Center. I don’t think I would have done any of those things without the space, the community, and those basic needs. 

What are you excited to dive into?

I just want to be in community with staff and get to know them! I realize we have similar tastes in books, and there are folks who love Audre Lorde and Beyonce! I just want to work with people who are so aligned with the mission of Sadie Nash but also people who are incredible individuals. I’m geeking out about that, to be honest.

“We are going to build you up individually, but we are going to lead as a community.”

When you think of our Sadie Nash community, what comes to mind?

The one word that just came into my mind is transformative. When we’re growing up, we’re told stories about being leaders and who gets to be the hero. There’s usually just one hero fighting all the battles alone. Being a historian and someone who deeply believes in community, I cannot stress how the single hero or the single leader does not really exist. It really takes a community to make a change in order to transform the world for the better so that we can all love freely and heal better.

What Sadie Nash has done has transformed centuries-old narratives about who gets to be the hero and who gets to be the leader and instead says what we can do in community. We are going to build you up individually, but we are going to lead as a community. For me, community is the hero. 

When I see photos of Nashers together, I think, that’s the bigger story. That is the story we need to tell more often! That is what is going to get more people to understand that in order to change the world, we cannot do it alone, and we have to transform how we understand leadership. And for the past 20 years, that’s what Sadie Nash has done. It’s how we understand leadership and heroism. Today with so much that is happening in terms of violence and oppression against women and gender-expansive people, we need to constantly transform the way we understand ourselves and the world for the better. We have to transform who can be a leader. We’ve always been leading, but our leaders always see community as the end goal. It’s a whole new way of understanding leadership.