Meet Clyanna Lightbourn (she/her), Statewide Civil Rights Organizer for Citizen Action of New York. Citizen Action of New York is a grassroots membership organization that advocates for various different causes such as housing justice, ensuring our children have a quality public education, ending our current system of mass incarceration and establishing a new system of justice to name a few. They work with the vision in mind to treat others with love, respect and dignity and each person is able to reach their fullest potential if we work together. “As organizers, we have been pointing out the weaknesses in our government and our capitalist systems for a long time. We are now seeing the worst case scenarios play out and it’s terrifying. I have been very lucky to not be directly impacted, but I know luck only lasts so long.” Clyanna is a strong soul with a fierce heart that protects those she loves, and is on the lookout for what those in her life need. She tells us “I stay vigilant and check on my friends and family to make sure they are ok too.”
Working for an organization that works directly to help people in the community, Civil Rights organizing largely involves in person interaction - whether it lobbying officials, or rallying community members for a cause. “My work involves a lot of socializing or meeting face to face. Now that I can’t do that, I’m looking for and creating ways to keep folks engaged in the community work and keep them feeling hopeful.” Clyanna has not let the work from home lifestyle slow her and her passions down though, as Citizen Action continues to work with communities in Mutual Aid, phone banking, and lobbying in other ways.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, hundreds of thousands of humans all across the country are working from home with no end in sight even as counties begin opening up. Clyanna thought at first what many of us may have, “It really seemed like a dream come true to work from home all the time." She sheds light on something we all will have to learn, the “balance when work stops and when life starts.” Looking at data from Global Workplace Analytics, you can read that they estimate 25-30% of the workforce will still be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. This isn’t necessarily conducive to a healthy work environment, or work-life balance. Many people don’t have offices in their homes so they are working in spaces that are meant to be for leisure, and that’s creating a unique struggle for some. “My biggest struggle right now is separating personal time from work time and prioritizing self care. I can easily work until my eyes burn late into the evening and then overdo it with “self- care” which really turns into self-sabotaging. For me it looks like working until 11pm and then playing video games on the same computer to “wind down” until 3 am. It has led to many sleepless nights and difficult mornings. I know something needs to change, but it’s hard to get out of that habit.”
Like many of us who are social beings, we have to find ways to grow through our struggle. We may be doing it and not even realize. We adapt, overcome and evolve. This pandemic has for lack of a better term forced and molded people into doing things that seemed so insignificant, a different way. “This pandemic has forced me to look at the way I interact with others and the way I treat myself, making it abundantly clear of what I’m missing. I’m working on filling those voids and becoming a better person. I have been leaning on my friends both locally and in other cities. Together we laugh, cry, share memes, or just get on video chats to be together and see one another’s faces. I’m also spending more time with my sister and my niece. I’m grateful for these opportunities to know people and ask more intentional questions around “how are you doing?” it carries a whole different weight now.”
Self care doesn’t always mean bath bombs and wine. Self care isn’t always comfort food and Netflix. If that’s how you heal - more power to you. Although, self care is not definable person to person, as it’s understanding how you feel and letting yourself feel. It’s about realizing what you deserve, and outgrowing those things you do not. It’s about holding yourself accountable for your actions and not your friends. I saw something very intelligently spoken that said “no one owes you anything during this lockdown, it’s a global pandemic. Now isn’t the time to project your issues to your friends. Do the best YOU can, check on people who cross your minds, and don’t use this as a way to test your friends.” Everyone is going through this pandemic. I say check on your strong friends, I say reach out… but that’s only if it’s right for you. As Clyanna said, “how are you doing?” carries a whole different weight now, only you can define what that is and what it means for you. Everyone’s story is different.
Clyanna’s experience through this pandemic sheds light on the dynamic of being a community presence with long work hours, and at the same time combating how to take space for ourselves in our day. Our days are lacking that clear line of work and home, brain on and off. She leaves us with a message to “Give yourself grace. We can’t be everything to everyone and you really can’t help people if you’re not ok yourself. There are enough of us to help one another and we need to be kind to ourselves and to one another.”
Fighting through this pandemic in solidarity is something to not take lightly. We have highlighted over the past few weeks warriors from various organizations that work for the people in our communities through various day to day battles. Sometimes the biggest battle is the one we fight within ourselves.
We can’t stop the compassion for other humans as this time is making vulnerable communities become more vulnerable, so if your beliefs align with Citizen Action of New York, there are ways you can be involved. Keep an open mind, there are many organizations in your communities that do great work; if you can, be involved!
Thank you to Clyanna and the folx at Citizen Action for all of the work you do, being there for humans of NY.
For more information on Citizen Action of New York, please visit citizenactionny.org or follow them on instagram & Twitter: @citizenactionny.
// Please note all quoted statements above are those of Ms. Lightbourn and not reflective of Faiella Studios.