Hanif has championed a range of issues within the City Council, including recent legislation protecting transgender and intersex New Yorkers. Credit: NYC Council Media Team
By ELEANOR TRAUBMAN | news@queensledger.com
Eleanor Traubman is the founder of My Local Heroes, which lives on both Facebook and Instagram. Now in its fifth year, MLH is a celebration of activists, artists, athletes and entrepreneurs from Brooklyn and beyond who are working to make their communities better places to live.
Launched during the pandemic, the project was featured in News12 and The Patch, and received a Covid-19 Heroes Award from the former Brooklyn Borough President.
This article is part of a series of posts Eleanor is writing about community leaders and their take on local community involvement. This week, we’re featuring her conversation with Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who represents District 39, spanning from Kensington to the Columbia Waterfront. She’s the first Bangladeshi and Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council, and the first woman to represent the district.
MLH: How did you become interested in community-building and civic leadership?
SH: One contributing factor was when I was diagnosed with Lupus at age 17. I was going into my senior year at high school and I was very sick with unexplained symptoms.
My family was uninsured and not in tune with medical care. I experienced issues with access in some buildings and experienced limited mobility, so it was difficult to get around the city.
These struggles around lack of access and mobility contributed to my initial interest in activism around issues of accessibility in schools and transit, as well as access to medical care. I wanted to change the system, especially for immigrants and people with limited proficiency in English.
In addition to advocacy work around issues of access, I also co-founded a Muslim writers collective and a Bangladeshi Feminist Collective. I am the daughter of immigrants and Bangla is the language of our homeland. I grew up in post-9/11 NYC, impacted by the surveillance policies and the ways that elected officials stayed quiet about those.
MLH: What gave you the idea that you had power and a voice?
SH: Before social media, I saw very little representation of my people. I could not find a book or a movie where a person like me was prominently featured, and when I did find a person with a disability was included in books or movies, they were often portrayed as a villain.
Also, there were very few people I knew in my circle who had gone through what I did around having Lupus. My diagnosis and what I was experiencing from it as a result, felt like something that I was supposed to keep a secret. These experiences led me to write.
One event in particular spurred me to write, which was Acces-A-Ride’s rejection of my application after a humiliating interview process. After rejecting me from that service, I was not allowed to re-apply.
I was left on my own to get around by paying cab fares. My friends encouraged me to write about this experience, so I wrote a blog post.
Doing this was a way of talking to my friends, and a way of connecting with other Lupus survivors so that people could understand what this life looked like.
MLH: How do you create community among your staff?
SH: We are mission-aligned in the progressive values that are ingrained in the work we do around policy and the work we do for our constituents.
We are aligned in wanting a city where more people are treated with dignity, especially marginalized populations.
We aim to protect renters, tenants, and the rights of freelance workers and the deliveristas andUber/Lyft drivers who often have families and are not paid a livable wage.
Our staff works in a democratic way. We engage in conversations to assess how to think about issues. I run the office in a way that respects each staff member’s knowledge and expertise.
I make sure that our office staff includes South Asian young people from working-class families, young people who are children of immigrants, and who attend CUNY schools.
Hanif with staff, outside their office in Gowanus.
MLH: In what ways do you foster community involvement amongst your constituents?
SH: We have seen that English classes are offered through the Fifth Avenue Committee to Bangladeshi women in their 20s and 30s who are stay-at-home moms.
These women got to know and form a bond with their English teacher, and this teacher helped them get involved in things like participatory budgeting.
We have also helped community members get involved as volunteers in our programs that address food insecurity.
MLH: Why is it important for people to get involved in their local community?
SH: Getting involved at the local level helps create the safety that comes from knowing that you know your neighbors and your neighbors know you. You can gather in moments of anxiety and know that you are not alone. You can move away from simply scrolling through the news on social media and see how people on your block are doing.
I was lucky to grow up in a neighborhood where I was shaped by the idea that we belonged there, that we would not be kicked out. I was 32 when I moved out of my childhood home. Growing up surrounded by aunties and uncles was very reassuring.
Being a younger voice in my neighborhood, I noticed that there were not a lot of spaces in which young people could convene. So I helped to build Kensington Plaza and Avenue C Plaza.
MLH: How do you keep your life and your work enjoyable? What brings you joy?
SH: I love trying new foods. I also have a cat that I adopted in 2017, who is so dear to me, like my firstborn.
MLH: What else would you like people to know about you?
SH: I am interested in fashion and love connecting with and creating partnerships with local Southeast Asian designers and artists.
