Jayshawn Lee

Jayshawn is an artist-scholar and human rights advocate. His work explores the complex relationship human rights have with global solidarity and personal stakes in which art and scholarship are bridges for understanding.

He works at Echoing Green, a nonprofit that funds global leaders engaging in social impact and racial equity through its biannual fellowship. There he focuses on grantmaking initiatives, fellow search & selection systems, and supporting global community programming for the 75M racial equity philanthropic fund.

He is also a Poet at Ars Poetica, a global poetry and literary agency that brings creativity and language arts to partnered spaces. His work as an artist has led him to working with museums, universities, and other institutions to foster writing as a gateway for social change and learning. Jayshawn’s passion for community building led him to previously establish Write-Up Group, an NYC-based writer collective that offered free public workshops.

While working as Advocacy Committee Chair with Human Rights First, he hopes to connect the anecdotal experiences of its members to the public eye as a means to showcase where change is possible in a new generation of world shapers.

Jayshawn holds a MA from Columbia University in Human Rights Studies and a BA from New York University with a focus on Political Economy & Global Equity, where he studied as a GUIDE Scholar. There Jayshawn received an Interdisciplinary Academic Excellence Award, openEARTHstudio Artistic-Activism Award, and served for numerous years as the host of Say It Loud!, a Showcase of the Arts and Black Activism, which he continues annually.