Karissa Lewis, Oakland, CA

Karissa Lewis is a Black Radical Farmer from Oakland California. Karissa is the co-founder of an urban farm in East Oakland, Full Harvest Urban Farm. Karissa works at the Center for Third World Organizing, a national training institute building the next generation of organizers, where she is the Training Director. She also also works with People's Grocery, a food justice and service organization based in west Oakland building power with in the long term resident community while bringing healthy food to the residents. She has organized around issues ranging from gentrification to environmental racism, gang injunctions, and police brutality. Karissa believes that the movement for social justice has to be led by the people most affected, by building leadership in communities of color. She became politicized during the rebellions fighting for justice for Oscar Grant and through CTWOs MAAP program which she is a graduate. She is an active member of the BlackOut collective and the Bay Area Black Lives Matter chapter.