Inauguration 2026

It has been a few weeks now, and I think the haze of the hustle and bustle of helping produce the Inauguration of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of the City of New York is finally lifting. What is left now is a kind of sweet clarity that, in my case, feels like it has affirmed a decades long path that has led me here - to a place of unapologetic values, friendships and collaborations that uplift me and the communities around me, and a relentless hopefulness and belief that when we gather in ways that model the world we want, we build that world in that act. 

It’s not lost on me that few things in my life will go down in the history books, and the privilege of knowing that my work and the work of Greater Good Events will be remembered in our opportunities to support the election of, transition and inauguration of Zohran Mamdani. 

But what won’t be mentioned in the history books are the stories that made these experiences so meaningful to me, personally. So many of them were represented in the faces I saw at Inauguration… 

I first met Zohran Mamdani in the context of the Astoria Mutual Aid Network - a project I started, with Ross Mudrick, my husband, in March of 2020 when facing down an unknown pandemic and the realities of a government that wasn’t prepared to meet the needs of New Yorkers. I was an unemployed event planner (because of COVID restrictions) and a first-time community organizer. He was an upstart candidate in my Assembly district, an unapologetic socialist, and the first person who ever got me excited about politics in a real way.  He shared resources and power in ways that mattered, even so far as to let us run Astoria Food Pantry out of his underused candidate office so we could feed neighbors and keep each other safe, showed up when he said he would, and always did so with warmth and empathy. 

Across the Plaza I saw Katie Riley, collaborator and events confidant, as she navigated her role as Creative Director on the Inauguration. Katie spent a year working with Greater Good Events in 2024 and I had the pleasure to watch in awe as she - who through the process of this campaign and transition - crafted experience after experience to connect people to purpose and purpose to politics in her role as Deputy Campaign Manager on the Campaign. I now have the distinct pleasure of a weekly breakfast with Katie and another Catie - Catie Fireman, a local baker, DSA member, AFP organizer, and now Community Organizing Subcommittee Member for the Transition. In the same way people have a “work wife,” Catie is my Organizing Wife, reminding me that taking care of our people means also taking care of ourselves and always ready to offer me a snack, hug, or hard question to get me through. 

If you saw a wide shot of City Hall on Inauguration day, you saw a beautiful banner hung across the frontage - a banner lovingly painted by Chloe Joy Ivanson who welcomed me onto the Transition team in so many moments with immense compassion. A banner painted at Queens Collaborative, a community art nonprofit I started with some creative pals in 2021.

In a rush from one end of City Hall Plaza to the other, I ran into Evie Hantzopoulous, mentor extraordinaire and incredible Astoria organizer who I had the pleasure to help run for City Council in 2021 as co-Campaign Manager. She was the first person I ever canvassed for, the first person I ever got into politics for, and a model for what generosity and ethics looks like in action. Because of her, and her infinite willingness to connect people, we were able to engage the 4 borough-based Botanic Gardens and decorate the stage with beautiful conifers representing the natural life and vibrancy in NYC. 

I saw Kim Calichio in the crowd - I spent 3 years as a Board Member with Evie for The Connected Chef, co-Led by Kim, friend and local parent who has known Emma (my step daughter) for her entire life . The Connected Chef works to address inequities in food access throughout NYC and hosted Zohran’s first Campaign Rally at their community food hub in Long Island City. 

I saw Kevin LaCherra as I zoomed from entrance gate to entrance gate - who was one of my first Mutual Aid friends (along with Whitney Hu, Amanda Farias, and Ariadna Philips) - and welcomed me into NYC organizing with warmth and open arms. On his 3rd day in office, Zohran initiated the work, previously frozen by Eric Adams, to Make McGuinness Safe - a project Kevin helped spearhead since the early days of my knowing him.  And John Surico, who I met by way of Evie and her work on the 31st Avenue Open Street in Astoria. John - a brilliant professor, journalist and thinker about how cities are living, breathing things and how they can support the livelihoods of many - was joined by his wife, Angela Almeida who quickly raised her hand to volunteer on the day. Angela, herself a brilliant and buoyant mind - a documentarian and storyteller like no other. I had the pleasure of planning their wedding in 2024. 

As I scanned the crowd to find one of our volunteers, I saw the joyful faces of Tasnima and Peter whose wedding I also had the pleasure of planning in 2022 and now have the privilege of calling friends and comrades. (All photos by Tasnima in the gallery below!) I saw Nusayba and Luke and Yasmeen and Jiadi, both couples I met because of Ross’s Rugby team but have had the pleasure to know through mutual aid and their own generous and compassionate organizing efforts. 

Our fearless Executive Producer on this project, Ellyn Canfield, led our #teamparty with incredible patience. And as I watched her zip from entry to door to stage and back, I saw how hard she had worked for us to reach this final stage, still standing.

I had the pleasure of inviting Sam Arpino frequent collaborator with the Greater Good Events team to join the onsite team and, as usual, she played an invaluable and incredibly grounding role in a day full of the new and unknown. And of course, my truest work wife, Justine Broughal who leans in when I have wild ideas and invites me to take a moment from time to time to let the wildness settle before moving forward. Who dove in over the holidays to make sure folks participating in Inauguration from far-and-wide were met with support and warmth in their digital experience. 

As Lucy Daucus sang Bread and Roses (watch it here), I shared that moment with my husband and best friend, Ross Mudrick who staffed me for the day as my production runner and has been by my side through all of this growth, change, and work. Truly he is the source of my political awakening, of my belief in growth and change, in my desire to put in the work to build a better world… 

I had very few moments to take it all in at Inauguration itself. But I did catch a brief moment surrounded by friends - known and unknown) to breathe in the fact that over the last many years I am not the only one who has been building toward a new world - all 4,000 of the guests at the City Hall ceremony, all 40,000 attendees at the Public Viewing on Broadway, and the tens of thousands who watched live from around the world have been building too. 

“As we go marching, marching, we’re standing proud and tall.
The rising of the women means the rising of us all.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.”