Desi Burnette

Desi is an organizer and media-maker/storyteller who uses audio documentation, radio, and video to craft and share compelling stories of poor and working people, fighting for their rights as human beings with an emphasis on connecting their struggles to broader social movements. Her primary goal is to build a movement to end poverty led by the poor. She was a co-founder of Radio Tlacuache from 2008-2010 and has worked widely with the Media Mobilizing Project. Desi has produced videos on a broad range of campaigns including: ending fire company closures, anti-casino organizing, ending the deportation of Cambodian refugees, and stopping the displacement of mobile home communities by the fracking industry, among others.

Desi will produce three radio segments focusing on the topics of education, affordable housing and labor struggles. The segments will draw connections between the Latino immigrant struggle and the struggles of other poor and working-class Philadelphians. By making the pieces in both English and Spanish, the project will become a meaningful tool for communicating experiences across cultural and language barriers. The segments will be aired on Radio Tlacuache, the only Spanish language radio program on West Philadelphia’s community radio station WPEB 88.1 FM. In addition, the pieces will be broadcast on the internet as podcasts and shared with other radio stations in Philadelphia and across the country.