Press release from Townsend for AVL:
Nicole Townsend, 29-year-old organizer and community leader, announced her candidacy for Asheville City Council on Saturday evening during her keynote speech at the 2019 CoThinkk Annual Award Ceremony. Over 300 people gathered to recognize and celebrate Black and brown community leaders in Western North Carolina.
Townsend, running on public safety, education equity, and environmental justice, is the third candidate to announce for the 2020 municipal race.
“Tonight we get to celebrate one another and honor the revolutionary work that is being done right here in our own community. For us, by us,” Townsend said, leading the audience in learning a social justice movement song. “As I wrap, I would like to say that I hear the challenge to shift the now and shape the future, which is why I am running for Asheville City Council in 2020.”
Townsend, identifying as Black and queer, formally stepped into organizing in 2010 after a string of Asheville LGBTQ hate crimes, bringing awareness to injustice through poetry. She has since been organizing in the South around environmental justice, police accountability, queer & trans liberation, and cash bail, currently working as the Regional Organizer at Southerners On New Ground.
“At a time divided by gentrification, racial inequality, and economic despair, we must do better and take bold action now,” the campaign stated on social media, with nearly 600 Facebook followers in less than 24 hours of its launch. “We can transform public safety, heal deep systemic divides in our education system, and achieve environmental justice for frontline communities to meet basic survival needs.”
Townsend is the recipient of the Blue Ridge Pride Leadership Award, CoThinkk Leadership Award, and the Tzedek Brilliance Award. She is currently a board member of the Human Relations Council of Asheville and Asheville Writers in Schools and Community. Her work has involved numerous local organizations such as Green Opportunities, City of Asheville Youth Leadership Academy, Asheville GreenWorks, and The Cindy Platt Boys and Girls Club of Transylvania County with youth ages 5-18.
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