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Tanene Allison
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Tanene Allison is a millennial writer, poet and new media political strategist and innovator. Previously Tanene has worked at Brave New Films and at MTV, where she focused on Think MTV, MTV'S on-air, online and grassroots pro-social campaign.

Tanene completed her Masters in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, Tanene edited the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, and was awarded a Point Foundation Uncommon Legacies Scholarship. Her undergraduate studies were at San Francisco State University.

Blog Entries by Tanene Allison

Feminism And The Powers Of Destruction And Creation

1 Comments | Posted December 9, 2011 | 10:42:45 (EST)

Recently, a former professor of mine invited me to guest lecture in a series on the topic of feminism and how it influences various careers. While preparing for my talk, I realized that my idea of feminism -- and how it relates to my career -- is born of a...

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The "End of Men," From One Lesbian's Perspective

9 Comments | Posted September 30, 2011 | 12:01:07 (EST)

As a lesbian, it is always an interesting experience to join a conversation on changing gender roles and the future of the role of men. Quite reliably, these conversations usually only occur with straight female friends who are somewhere in their 30s. Men have never brought this topic up to...

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On Becoming Less of an Outlaw

Posted June 27, 2011 | 17:04:37 (EST)

Friday night's historic vote for marriage equality in New York State was an incredible moment. The vote was a nail biter, it came after previous losses in the state, was done in the first Republican controlled legislature to ever pass such a bill, and it ushered in Pride...

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Rape and the City: Another Side of New York

Posted February 7, 2011 | 21:19:23 (EST)

Jana Leo's Rape New York, published by The Feminist Press, takes what is often pushed into silence -- rape -- and blows it open as a social construct, and something everyone who lives in a community has to inevitably interact with in some form. Leo analyzes...

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When a Country Votes on Your Existence: DREAM and DADT

Posted December 20, 2010 | 11:10:31 (EST)

Today I cannot stop thinking about what it means to live in a country that votes regularly on your basic rights to exist and be equal.

On a gray and cold Saturday in Washington D.C., the Senate voted to expand the possibilities for some and to shut the door on...

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Where are the Progressive (Political) Riot Grrrls?

Posted November 27, 2010 | 00:33:17 (EST)

Elizabeth Wurtzel nails some important points in her recent article in The Atlantic, titled, Sarah Palin, Riot Grrrl.

Much of the online debate around this article is about how Palin isn't a feminist and thus shouldn't be called a Riot Grrrl. I'm not even going to spend any...

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Criminalizing the Poor: A San Francisco Value?

Posted April 20, 2010 | 14:58:23 (EST)

In San Francisco, Mayor Newsom is making a bid to redefine what the nation thinks of "San Francisco values." The Mayor of the City by the Bay has proposed an ordinance that would make it illegal for someone to sit or lie on sidewalks between 7 a.m. and...

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Hate in the Face of History

Posted March 24, 2010 | 14:36:45 (EST)

I thought a lot about Harvey Milk this last weekend. It was gorgeous and sunny in Washington DC, and history was made as Congress passed into law the most monumental piece of social infrastructure legislation in over forty years. Health care is now a Right in America, and soon 31...

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In DC Americans Take On Health Insurance Executives

Posted March 11, 2010 | 11:38:15 (EST)

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure to join thousands of others who took to the streets of Washington DC in support of health care reform and to protest the insurance industry executives who were gathered at the Ritz Carlton. On the same morning, the cover of the New...

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Talking about Personal Finances -- the Final Taboo?

Posted August 6, 2009 | 11:59:36 (EST)

One of the most radical things I've ever seen was posted on construction paper and hung on a wall at a San Francisco housewarming. Two friends of mine had purchased their first home and invited the community to a housewarming with invites entitled: "Two Black Folks Bought A House In...

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The (Zigzagged) Arc of History

Posted May 29, 2009 | 10:43:52 (EST)

The morning after the Prop 8 decision, I woke up in a house of a special legal class. The telltale signs of being in such a home might at first be hard to discern. There was coffee and tea being made. There was morning chitchat occurring. But there were also...

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Follow the Artists to Our New Democracy

Posted April 1, 2009 | 02:19:53 (EST)

"Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it." - Gloria Anzaldua

I have been thinking a lot...

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Milk: Hope On The Screen And In The Streets

Posted November 24, 2008 | 18:00:05 (EST)

I meant to write a review of Milk upon watching it, but kept getting halted and hindered in that attempt. Friends would ask for a casual review, but I wasn't able to take the pieces and thoughts and weave them into a coherent retelling. As a young dyke who grew...

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The LGBT Rights Heartbreak and the Great Work Ahead

Posted November 10, 2008 | 10:27:41 (EST)

Too often have I woken up the morning after an election having less rights than I did the night before. If you are a member of the LGBT community, this is a familiar sensation to you. As a lesbian, in 2004 I work up on the morning after the election...

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Why What Palin Doesn't Know About the Supreme Court Matters

Posted October 1, 2008 | 13:28:02 (EST)

It's my job as the Media Campaign Coordinator at the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights to think a lot about the courts and about how to get other folks to also think about the courts. As someone who believes in and works for civil rights, I think...

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McCain On Gay Rights: No Marriage, No Adoptions, No HIV/AIDS Prevention Plan

Posted September 29, 2008 | 14:10:50 (EST)

Oftentimes in an election season, you hear the familiar cry from disillusioned voters that there really is no substantial difference between the two main candidates. In this election, that isn't the problem we face. A read-through of the platforms of the two parties and the policy proposals of the candidates...

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Online and Off, Millennials Redefine Civil Rights Activism

Posted July 15, 2008 | 14:07:41 (EST)

There has been a lot of chatter lately about the Millennial Generation. It has been popular to discuss how best to manage Millennials. The generation has been analyzed and scrutinized in how they get their news and just what, exactly, they are doing during all that time online. There's...

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