Kairos Fellow Spotlight: Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
“The digital organizing space needs to be injected with innovation and with sharp analysis and tools that invite vigorous engagement from communities of color, that follows their leadership, and that welcomes their genius and wisdom. Digital organizing needs a program like Kairos, because so far the field hasn’t made safe room for organizers of color.”
Irna Landrum was a 2016 Kairos Fellow with Daily Kos, a progressive website that is at once a news organization, community, and activist hub. With an email list of more than three million and an active online community, Daily Kos runs online campaigns on a wide range of progressive issues.
At Daily Kos, where she was a digital campaigner, Landrum ran both rapid response campaigns as well as longer-term projects on a range of issues, from voter suppression efforts to legislation targeting the transgender community. She also played a key role in the creation of Daily Kos’s Liberation League, which focused on educating and moving the organization’s members to take action on racial and gender justice issues.
Now a full-time campaigner at Daily Kos, Landrum shared her experience as a Kairos Fellow with us. Read more!
What did you gain and learn from being a Kairos Fellow?
I entered a field I understood very little about, and I learned about the data that drives online activism — metrics, A/B testing, action rates, and chi squared tests to determine best practices. I also became part of a team, the Daily Kos Liberation League, that is beginning to challenge conventional metrics, recognizing that value-neutral metrics cannot serve racial justice. I gained a network of emerging digital leaders and a close-knit group of colleagues whom I’ve continued to collaborate with and innovate with. I gained a team that always has my back and whose work I always want to uplift and support.
In what ways did the Kairos Fellowship impact you?
The Kairos Fellowship changed my life. It came at a crucial period in my life when I needed to feel more impactful as an organizer, and I also needed to tend to my creative self. I promised myself a year earlier to honor myself as an artist and take my writing more seriously. I’ve been able to use my writing to become a more impactful organizer, and Kairos opened up that opportunity for me.
What are you most proud of accomplishing as a Kairos Fellow?
I’m proud of developing my leadership skills and passion for racial equity in such a way that I’ve become a leader in the Kairos network. I’m now an integral part of the Kairos Fellowship leadership team — as both an advisory board member, and a supervisor to the fellows my organization will host in the future.
Why does the digital organizing space need a program like the Kairos Fellowship?
Marginalized communities are always reshaping the world. Our creativity and innovation are often born out of sheer necessity, making a way out of no way. The digital organizing space needs to be injected with innovation and with sharp analysis and tools that invite vigorous engagement from communities of color, that follows their leadership, and that welcomes their genius and wisdom. Digital organizing needs a program like Kairos, because so far the field hasn’t made safe room for organizers of color.
