About Us

Mission

Mayday Space is a multi-story organizing center and social hub in Bushwick that works in tandem with our sister space Starr Bar a short walk away. Mayday is both a neighborhood resource and a citywide destination for engaging programming, a home for radical ideas and debate, and a welcoming gathering place for people and movements to work, learn, celebrate and build together.

As an organizing center and events space for grassroots organizations to host their fundraiser parties, leadership retreats and more, Mayday inspires and sustains a justice-oriented community that is both publicly identifiable and approachable. We’ve created an innovative model that connects to the solidarity economy, promotes a shared sense of stewardship, and attracts new individuals to social justice politics in a culturally-dynamic setting.

As a movement project, Mayday also works with long-time community organizers to amplify neighborhood issues such as immigrant rights, food justice, tenants protections, gentrification and displacement as well as broader global issues such as climate justice and Internet freedom. To carry out this work, we’ve co-created empowering leadership structures for collectively managing the space and shaping the direction of our programming and organizing projects.

By offering access to our space on a sliding scale (down to free access), we prioritize people of color, immigrants, women-led groups, LGBTQ, poor and working class communities. The programming events Mayday welcomes and curates ourselves likewise centers the voices, creativity and leadership of frontline communities.

Download the Mayday Space Handbook for a more in-depth understanding of our internal structure, history and long-term goals.

Vision

We know that a radically more just, equitable, and democratic New York City is possible. Mayday is a resource for activists and organizers working to envision and promote alternatives to current injustices, to build collective power, and to push for broader systemic change. We are a space where movements come together to reflect on strategy, tactics, what we’re up against, and the better world we’re fighting for.

Our Staff and Collective

Mayday is a people-powered project run by our volunteer Collective in tandem with various organizing projects, a slew of other friends, collaborators, area residents and our small staff. The Mayday Collective is where the rubber hits the road, making the bulk of organization-wide decisions. The Collective is responsible for Mayday’s overall health and advancing our social justice mission.

Lucas Shapiro (he/him) is dedicated to multi-issue movement-building and currently serves as the Deputy Director of ALIGN, advancing climate, worker and racial justice via policy coalitions at the NYC and state level.  He’s been an organizer with member-led groups such as the West Side Neighborhood Alliance and Families United for Racial and Economic Equality. He’s additionally worked as a popular educator with the IHP study abroad program connecting young leaders to grassroots advocates, union workers, and progressive elected officials. He draws inspiration for Mayday from his experience working with social centers in Spain.

Rahel Biru joined the Mayday family five years ago, as the Host & Caretaker, making it a priority to create a comfortable, tidy, and well-organized space for new and frequent visitors alike. Before Mayday, she organized with the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as with other political formations focused on direct action and protests. She is committed to creating a society of accountability for those at the political and economical top, a society which redistributes their power and money to those who have none. Rahel joined the Mayday collective because holding down a sustainable piece of the political infrastructure in NYC is a crucial part of that larger social mission.

Cynthia Tobar (she/her/ella) is an artist, activist-scholar, filmmaker and oral historian passionate about creating participatory stories documenting social change. A first-generation Ecuadorian American born and raised in NYC, she strives to blend rigorous research with diverse artistic mediums to shed light on marginalized narratives and forgotten histories. Cynthia is the founder of Cities for People, Not for Profit, an ongoing oral history project documenting gentrification and displacement in Bushwick. She is a member of Mi Casa No es Su Casa and is Associate Professor/Head of Archives at Bronx Community College, where she creates socially-engaged art programming, community-based archiving/ storytelling projects. Other obsessions include running, traveling and cooking with her daughter for family and friends.

Diana (she/ella) Diana has been a Mayday volunteer for the 5 past years. You can find her in the Mayday kitchen supporting fundraisers and events with her food creations and herbal elixirs, hosting the Femme Revenge Film Series and vending her herbal remedies at Mayday markets. Being born and raised in the southside of Chicago (La Villita), she knows the importance of preserving the cultural integrity of neighborhoods in the fight against gentrification. Outside of Mayday, Diana works in abortion rights, practices conflict transformation (she will lovingly nudge you to have that hard convo!) and offers workshops on herbal medicine but mostly about cempazúchitl.

Mar (they/them/elle) Born and raised in Perú with roots in the Andes and Amazonía, Mar was first introduced to May Day Space in 2016 through creative art builds and late night banner painting sessions. With a background in environmental protection and mutual aid in the four-corners region, Mar is dedicated to building liberatory intergenerational spaces that foster a connection to nature, to each other, to the land that we are on, and to the communities whose land we are on. Mar is currently studying Horticulture and Botany and enjoys bicycling around Bushwick from garden to garden. Before Mayday, Mar was a member of Black Rose Anarchist Federation and Ice Free NYC.

Sebas (el/he/his) Born and raised in Colombia, Sebastian continues the legacy of centering music in social movements through his dedication as a musician and educator, his discipline as a community builder, and his desire to connect with our local immigrant communities.  He was a core member of Bushwick Ayuda Mutua and currently organizes with Centro Corona  and Mesita de la Memoria. Since summer 2022, Sebastian has led Escuela Popular de Arte Sonoro, a free music program for local immigrant, undocumented and BIPOC youth at Mayday Space, bringing bi-lingual lessons, workshops, and events uplifting the Brooklyn community and Bushwick neighborhood through his project.

Ryan Page (he/him) joined Mayday as a volunteer in 2018 cooking for the Decade of Fire film screening. Since then, he has consistently participated in cooking for even larger events like the Family Throwdown which celebrates social justice communities and organizations in Bushwick. In addition to spending time in Mayday’s kitchen, he also formed a book club with other collective members, reading a variety of leftist authors from Assata Shakur to Ursula K. Le Guin. Since 2020, Ryan has also devoted himself to many mutual aid projects in and around Bushwick supporting food distributions of Comida Pal Pueblo and Woodbine. He’s inspired by the collective work of mutual aid and direct action initiatives and is always seeking to learn more about people-powered movements around the world. His love of  learning in community with others informs his organizing in Mayday and NYC. You can always catch him at a film screening, teach-in, or in the Mayday kitchen.