Tanay Lynn Maliwaza Harris is a community organizer in LDF’s Criminal Justice Project. Over the past five years Tanay has worked in Philadelphia as a community activist, organizer and educator. Tanay participated in organizing campaigns focused on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as police brutality and misconduct, cooperative economic development and education. Tanay served as Assistant Coordinator for the Center for African American Research and Public Policy (CAARPP) in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. At CAARPP she helped coordinate lectures, symposiums, and town hall meetings on the campus and in the community focusing on education, health, economic development, crime and justice.
Tanay is a youth Jegna (a person dedicated to the defense, protection, nurturance and development of the young) through various community organizations and summer programs throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Tanay is co-founder of the Black Student Action Network providing youth a platform which is based on direct action in helping to facilitate a movement for social change in the 21st century. Tanay graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Africana Studies (African American Studies) and Sociology. Tanay adheres to the African Adage, “I am because we are, and because we are, therefore I am.”