Beyond Prisons Student Program Coordinator
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Taji is a writer, performer, and community organizer. He graduated from the University of Chicago in June 2024 with a B.A. in Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, with a focus on prisons, race, and the cultural aesthetics of resistance. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he has been active in politics and community building since high school. Taji previously served as Chair of the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, appointed by the Mayor, where he oversaw efforts by the Department of Justice to implement a consent decree within the Portland Police Bureau. 

He is a co-founder of the youth-run organization Raising Justice and has served on the Board of the Restorative Justice Coalition of Oregon and the Local Public Safety Coordinating Committee. Taji has also supported organizations such as Parole Illinois, the Prison Neighborhood Arts + Education Project, and the ACLU of Oregon. Additionally, he advised on the mayoral campaign of Sarah Iannarone and contributed to the 2020 Public Safety Task Force and revised community engagement policies for Portland's Office of Community Engagement and Civic Life.

With a keen interest in community education, Taji seeks to work at the intersections of performance, decarcerality, and political mobilization to advocate for transformative justice and dismantle systems of oppression affecting all communities.