Lynn Lewis

Affiliations

  • Adjunct Faculty, Oral History: Fieldwork, Production, and Archiving

Contact

ll2416@columbia.edu | CV

About

Lynn works at the intersection of community organizing, oral history, participatory action research and popular education. Lynn has an MA in Oral History from Columbia University, and is the recipient of a NEH/OHA Fellowship 2022/2023 for her work on the The Picture the Homeless Oral History Project. Her work interrogates power and privilege both within an oral history project as well as exploring how oral history projects may shift power dynamics in society at large. 

Working as a trainer and advisor to the Housing Justice Oral History Project  at the New School, she is particularly excited about the ways that this digital platform creates space for multiple housing justice related oral history projects (and is continually expanding) - mirroring our housing movement ecosystem. 

Her book, Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice (City Lights, 2023) is a collection of oral history interviews with nine community organizers and cultural workers across the U.S. She is the former ED and civil rights organizer at Picture the Homeless, and continues to support grassroots organizing with groups led by unhoused folks in a range of capacities. She is currently collaborating with Voice of Witness in the development of a new oral history project, Unhoused Neighbors Speak Out and is lead on the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Oral History Project. Lynn is an adjunct faculty at the New School and Columbia University and resides in El Barrio/East Harlem, is a mother and a grandmother and loves dancing, cooking, listening and being near the water.