Mari Tomlinson

Orlando, FL

Mari Tomlinson (she/her), a fat, black, magical femme lesbian who was born under a Halloween moon. Her passions include community work and organizing, mental health advocacy, writing, plus-size fashion, niche video essays, and queer media. She was an accomplished event planner during her time at University of Central Florida, bringing LGBTQ+ BIPOC representation and history to a predominantly white campus. She showcased the world of voguing and ballroom, created an LGBTQIA prom that had over 200 attendees, and brought Karamo Brown to discuss the importance of black queer mental health. Mari was also involved in Lavender Council where she facilitated trainings for different student and faculty organizations. Outside of college, Mari was a Rapid Rehousing Youth Case Manager with Zebra Youth under the SURE Housing Initiative, which was in ties with Ryan White. During that time, Mari worked with and successfully housed youth living with HIV/AIDS. Now, Mari is a peer supporter with Peer Support Space, providing group facilitation through their Black LGBTQ+ Space and working at the first-ever peer respite in Central Florida called Eva’s Casita. Mari is also a co-founder of the Central Florida grassroots initiative All Black Errrythang and a Field & Relations Fellow with Queer Trans Project. Mari is excited to connect with the beautiful Central Florida community through her role as a campaign organizer with SONG! Feel free to reach out to her via Instagram at @discount.saintmari or email at mari@southernersonnewground.org if you’d like to collaborate, learn more about her position, or just ki ki about anything and everything!

Deb(orah) Coffy

Orlando, FL

Deb(orah) Coffy (they/she) is a Black Queer Gen-Z Haitian-American writer & researcher born in the Atlanta area, raised in the Pittsburgh area, and currently resides in Orlando, Florida. 

They are passionate about and advocate for social justice, womanism, Black liberation, reproductive justice, housing liberation, mental health, and (bodily) autonomy. Their people are Black neurodivergent queer people, organizers, and humanists. Because of this, they felt compelled to join SONG’s F3 Cohort to engage and organize with the community outside of the ballot box. They have organized under organizations such as Healthy Teen Network, the Illinois Caucus of Adolescent Health, the Black Health Commission, Peer Support Space, the National Organization for Women, the Queer Trans Project, and the Black and Missing Foundation to amplify Black, youth, marginalized gendered folx, and LGBTQ voices.

Outside of fighting against the system, they enjoy having fun with their friends and community, travel, cozy gaming, live music, fashion, writing, and reading. 

Jamilia Martineau-Lopez

Durham, NC

Jamilia was raised in a hamlet in the Catskill mountains of NY. Her ancestors were European settlers and Trinis from the South Asian and West African diasporas. The combination of rural life and neurodivergence meant he grew up most at home in and curious about the natural world.

With a Biology degree, Jamilia taught in Ghana through the Peace Corps, where she developed a passion for working with young people and became further politicized around U.S. imperialism. Since returning to the U.S, her work has included STEM education, sexual health, and violence prevention.
Durham’s spirit and legacy of struggle spoke to him and he’s been putting down roots for almost a decade. He found a political home in SONG in 2019 and is a current F3 fellow. When not base-building, you can find them tending the garden, basking in a sunbeam with her cat, or being gay with his love.

JT Turner

Durham, NC

JT Turner joined SONG after relocating back to their home state of North Carolina. Growing up in a family deeply rooted in the Raleigh-Durham Black community, with a mother who was a pillar in racial justice work, JT was inspired to pursue a path of activism and organizing. Being outed at 13 years old, JT spent years asking hard questions about identity, belonging, trauma, mental health, and dreaming of radical futures for themselves and other Black and queer and trans people.

Before beginning their work as a Free From Fear Fellow, JT worked in higher education and currently leads learning and development for MMG EARTH, the first Black and non-binary led research and change management firm in the U.S. JT holds a master’s in education from Western Illinois University and a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They have also studied queer and liberation theology in the Master of Divinity Program at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Outside of their organizing work, JT loves spending time with loved ones, trying new food spots, reading, running errands, writing, and solo adventures. They are dedicated to building relationships that inspire collective action and liberation.

Devin Lancaster

Raleigh/Durham, NC

Devin Lancaster is a black queer man born and raised in Raleigh, NC. He is a current F3 Fellow organizing with the SONG Durham Chapter. Joining SONG in 2020 Devin took the first steps of his community organizing journey towards learning how to confront white supremacy. Growing up in majority white spaces left a deep impression on Devin as he watched friends grow into emissaries of the Capitalist Christian White Supremacist status quo. The pain of watching his community being transformed into unconscious enablers of systemic harm caused him to seek ways to address the issue. Devin hopes to create spaces of radical self-expression and self-acceptance to serve the recreation of a non-supremacist world. As an embodiment of radical self-expression Devin practices a multitude of art forms.

Oluwatobi Odugunwa

Nashville, TN

Oluwatobi Odugunwa (they/them) is a multiply-disabled, third-culture kid who grew up to be an organizer and mutual aid facilitator. Born in Southern Nigeria, they immigrated to Fayetteville, GA around age ten but only quite came into their American Southern identity in their late teens. Around that time, they found disability justice and began work that centers autistic and disabled people of color. One bonfire hang soaked in SONG alchemy and 1-on1 later, they discovered their organizing home in the SONG Nashville chapter and abolition alongside it.

Oluwatobi has been part of SONG Nashville since 2021, serving most of that time as a member leader and treasurer. They participated in the 2023 Terrain Mapping process and are a member of the 2024 Free From Fear Cohort. SONG has remained a warm, guiding embrace in their journey of putting their values into practice. Outside of SONG, they do mutual aid work via The Autistic People of Color Fund and Trans Aid Nashville. They’re also involved with COVID justice work and inter/national gender and disability justice work.

Oluwatobi’s primary principle is to continuously work towards a world where everyone is taken care of. In their off time–while they try to remember that “everyone” includes them–they read LGBTQ fantasy romance, play action RPG videogames, and mother their grumpy, old-man cat

Cree Renee

Richmond, VA

Cree Renee is a Black genderqueer multidisciplinary artist and advocate for social progress, deeply committed to Love, liberation, and abolition. With homage to their long maternal lineage, Cree represents the 804 coming from Powhatan lands, often known as Richmond, VA.

Since their teens, Cree has been organizing and working to build functionally connected lives and communities. They’ve been active in SONG for about four years, aiding in dismantling harmful structures and envisioning a just, compassionate world.

Cree adores fostering wholeheartedness and believes in the power of shared humanity, joy, and genuine expression to tackle oppression and nurture collective well-being. Their art and community work are life-affirming love letters to the power of personal and collective transformation. In everyday life, Cree relishes good food, tea, music, cozy puzzles and games, regenerative mindfulness practices, and their lifelong passions for writing and reading.

Tay Jones

Albany, GA

Tay Jones is a Black Gay woman with a passion for making and seeing change for the better of her community and people. Born and raised in the South, she had experienced, lived, and witnessed racial isolation, miseducation, racial injustice and etc. This drove her ambition to actually be a part of something and do something about it. Tay joined SONG in 2024 but started campaigning and organizing around the end of 2022. With SONG Tay really feels as if it’s home for her.

Most of the day she’s doing home renovations, which is what she loves to do, and right after, it’s researching, sharing, reaching out, and just trying to organize new ideas and projects/plans into play, while also tending to her 5 year old daughter.

Jess Manrriquez

Cleveland, MS

Jess Manrriquez is an educator based on occupied Choctaw land and a member of SONG’s Free From Fear cohort. A life long Mississippian, Jess has been involved in Southern movements for racial, queer, and trans justice for almost two decades in various capacities. Though rural, BIPOC QT Southerners are underfunded and over-exploited, Jess knows they are resourceful, scrappy, and have a wealth of generational community knowledge.

In their downtime, Jess enjoys growing things, writing screenplays, and playing video games. They are a Cancer sun/Cancer moon/Leo rising/Gemini venus.

M. Dominique Villanueva

Birmingham, AL

M. Dominique Villanueva (she/her) is a committed organizer for health and justice in marginalized communities. As Co-Founder of Fountain Heights Farms in Birmingham, AL, she ensures access to fresh produce through the We All Eat Food CSA and Free Market Stands. During the pandemic, Dominique co-founded the #WeAllEat Food Cooperative, serving 467 BIPOC members and connecting farmers to consumers through a sliding-scale system. Her organizing extends to land justice work with Southerners on New Ground (SONG) and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance, promoting sustainable agriculture, and fostering community resilience. In the heart of her community and home, Dominique is a creative, warrior, an expansive partner, and a proud mama of four urban farm-raised children, embodying her beliefs and values her public and private life.