Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Radicalized through the Unitarian Universalist youth movement as a teenager, Lydia’s politics are grounded in the revolutionary possibilities of transformative love and compassion. Lydia has organized in various movements for social and economic justice including supporting community-based struggles for affordable housing and prison reform/abolition in New Orleans where she resides. She also serves on the Board of the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) to strengthen solidarity economies.

Additionally, she has worked towards the anti-racist/anti-oppressive transformation of several organizations such as Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU), the Oberlin College Student Cooperative Association (OSCA), Common Ground Relief, and NASCO.

In addition, Lydia dreams of building a radical left intellectualism grounded in and relevant to social movements. To that end, she is actively researching and writing untold stories of white anti-racist activism and Southern prisoners’ organizing.

Currently she serves as the Director of Religious Education at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans where she works to further multigenerational spiritual life.

She has facilitated workshops for a range of conferences and organizations including the White Privilege Conference, NASCO Cooperative Education and Training Institute, the National Worker Cooperative Conference, the Liberal Religious Educators Association, and AVODAH. Lydia's writing has appeared in Left Turn Magazine, The Indypendent, and Monthly Review.

You can contact Lydia at: lydia(at)aortacollective(dot)org