Design Justice Network - Contractors
Many people over the years have played key roles in the growth and flourishing of the Design Justice Network! From our early days as an all-volunteer crew focused on organizing sessions, workshops, practice spaces, and network gatherings at the Allied Media Conference, we have evolved into an ongoing network supported at different moments by both volunteers and paid contractors.
The Design Justice Network is guided by a Steering Committee. In addition to providing ongoing volunteer labor for DJN fundraising, budgeting, programming, events, communications, and more, the Steering Committee also sets high-level strategy, determines the overall network structure, approves the budget, maintains information about the DJN’s structure, and reviews and approves new Working Groups and Local Nodes.
Current Contractors
Nour Arafat
Nour is an artist, writer, designer, and community organizer focused on projects dedicated to future building that explore and advance more liberated ways of being.
As a designer, her work engages with creative community spaces in Chicago, Detroit, and beyond. She has been self-publishing zines and books of poetry since 2014 and recently published an art book, "Desire/Memory." While pursuing her MSE in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, she started organizing and hosting events in Detroit.
After moving to Chicago in 2015 to work as an engineer, she helped co-found Aywa, a Chicago-based SWANA community Space. Since the organization's inception, she has helped co-organize dance parties, film screenings, poetry nights open night's and creative workshops. She is currently one of the facilitators for the Design Justice Network Chicago node.
Past Contractors
On a pastel purple-yellow gradient background, the titles and names of DJN’s Care Pod Team frame profile pictures of each practitioner. On the left, Care Pod Collaborator Corina Fadel (she/they) looks directly at the camera, styled in a light tan shawl against a dark blue background. In the middle, Care Pod Lead Denise Shanté Brown (she/her) smiles broadly as she looks directly at the camera. To the right, Care Pod Collaborator Jody Chan (they/them) sits in front of a desk as they gaze up thoughtfully.
Victoria Barnett
Victoria Barnett is a digital graphic designer, facilitator, community organizer, and collaborator at the service of social justice initiatives. She works with and for community organizations to pull on their own creativity and resilience, to create designs that are accessible, collaborative, and needed. Her work is based on the Principles of Design Justice, a network that she has supported as a volunteer, a Steering Committee member, and served as part-time as contract staff. She supports and is active in various community groups based in Tkaronto (Toronto, ON).
You can see more about her here: victoriabarnett.com
Rene Joy
Rene Joy is a writer, artist, tabletop gamer, and peer support specialist focused on social justice, equity and trauma recovery. Her practice is informed by her lived experience as a trauma survivor and systems thinker, helping others safely connect deeply personal moments with powerful universal movements through shared language and collaborative storytelling. She regularly partners with regional or project-based initiatives to elevate the power of those most impacted by inequitable systems in service of better worlds, brighter futures and liberation for all.
Visit renejoy.me to learn more about her work.
Taylor Simone
Taylor Simone is an artist, organizer, graphic designer, and educator from Metro Detroit. Simone also is the director of Exodus: School of Expression, an alternative space for Bipoc educators and artists to deepen their practice. Her work with the Design Justice Network started in 2015 as a network gathering attendee and volunteer. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from Eastern Michigan University in 2015 and her MFA in Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019.
Learn more about my practice here.