Naya Samuel is a native New Yorker, experienced community organizer and writer. She joins the Build NYC team with over a decade of experience working across performing arts and digital media industries, including positions at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Intercept, Field of Vision, TOPIC Studios, and more. She’s regularly contributed to Sports Illustrated via Empower Onyx, covering the stories of Black women in sports; and manages the community music collective CORPUS Family, focusing on free community programming, youth initiatives, local artist support, and overall fundraising, through the lens of music education in NYC.

She works with a vested interest in the intersections of Black culture and liberation locally and globally; hyper-local community organizing and amplifying the next generation of New Yorkers; and emergent strategies that mobilize and empower marginalized groups, especially Black femmes, and trans and queer youth. She’s excited to join BUILD to provide tangible access and resources, help young people re-imagine and refine their own skill sets; and to create truly intersectional, intentional spaces for young folks to foster their own communities. She also loves traveling, reading, cooking Trinidadian food, and spending time with her dog Roti.