Last Saturday afternoon, there was a full-on dance party at a polling place in Philadelphia where “The Cha Cha Slide” blasted from a flatbed truck and every voter waiting in line was grooving, including the man in front wearing a t-shirt that said “F—k 2020”.
This happy little dance party, which quickly went viral, was brought to Philly by #JoyToThePolls, a campaign launched by Election Defenders, a non-partisan coalition of activist groups including Mi Gente, Black Lives Matter and the Working Families Party, that’s making sure voters are safe and cared for while they wait in line to vote.
“We shouldn’t have to do this but we’ll play the cards we’re dealt and try to bring some joy,” Election Defender founder Nelini Stamp told Rachel Maddow on Tuesday.
Election Defenders is just one of several grassroots activist groups that form the basis of Nelini’s work toward social justice. She’s the director of strategy for the Working Families Party, a progressive social movement group advocating for economic and racial justice in the United States, and she co-founded Dream Defenders, a Florida-based activist organization working to rebuild communities, in particular communities of color, through access to healthcare, housing and employment opportunities, and away from policing, deportation and prisons.
Born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Nelini’s activism began in high school, when she dropped out after finding out she wouldn’t qualify for any financial aid or student loans to attend college because her single mother was poor.
“They only saw that my mom was taking care of three people, one was sick and didn’t have a job, and the other one was me, so she was taking care of that, spending a lot of money on bills,” Nelini told radio host Nina Turner in 2017. “Then in 2008, right near the financial crash, she told me that she couldn’t really help me anymore.”
Nelini earned her GED and in 2008 joined the staff of the New York Working Families Party, knocking on doors and field organizing for several campaigns across the state. She took part in marches and protests against economic and racial injustice, and in 2011 worked on the ground at the Occupy Wall Street protest, bringing together labor, community-based organizations and Occupy activists.
In 2012, Nelini and social activist Ciara Taylor co-founded The Dream Defenders in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed community watch member who police initially refused to charge due to Florida’s stand your ground law. (Zimmerman was eventually tried for second degree murder and manslaughter, but was acquitted in July, 2013.)
After Zimmerman’s acquittal, members of the group occupied the Florida State Capitol building for 31 days to protest the verdict and call for the state to repeal the stand your ground self-defense law. The protest ended when the House Speaker agreed to meet with them to discuss their demands.
Today, the Dream Defenders works mostly in Florida, but its trainings in non-violent civil disobedience, engagement and direct action have expanded to other parts of the country. They also conduct voter registration and host political education events.
Her duties with the Workers Families Party have brought Nelini to the national stage, with regular appearances at NetRoots Nation, the largest annual conference for progressives, and organizing groups in support of protest marches across the country. She has supported (and received recognition from) political figures such as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and she helps to identify candidates for state attorneys general and local judicial offices.
Still, the foundation of Nelini’s work is in communities that seek equitable change.
“I think that that’s where the fate lies in people, that it is our responsibility to change our future, to change this destiny, because destiny says that, for me, if you look at who I am and how I grew up, I shouldn’t be where I am right now,” she told Nina Turner.
This week, #JoyToThePolls is getting lots of attention as a positive movement of its own. To prepare for Election Day on Nov. 3, Election Defenders has already trained thousands of volunteers on de-escalation, recruited local musical artists and organized stops at polling places in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. At each stop, a colorful, decorated flatbed truck pulls up with local DJs bumping 20 minutes of dance music to the people waiting in line to vote. Nelini is hoping other communities will do the same for their voters.
It’s a bright spot in what has been a not-so-happy election season. Not a bad accompaniment for when you’re making your voice heard.
Don’t have access to a flatbed truck and glitter? Just hit up the #JoyToThePolls playlists on Spotify. Dozens of activists, celebrities and regular people are making their own playlists for voters to get in the groove on Election Day, or any time really.