In 1967, Marie Nahikian, a college newspaper editor, accepts an invitation to to attend a Higher Education Conference in Atlanta that turns into a life changing experience after an encounter with Kathleen Cleaver at a SNCC organizing session, unfolding to a rare interview with Coretta Scott King and meeting Dr. Martin Luther King.
Veteran community organizer Marie Nahikian hosts The Usable Past, where activists share their stories of past and present organizing for better housing, food, banks, jobs, environmental and social justice. A Brooklyn resident, Marie most recently worked with U.S. Housing & Urban Development under President Obama and has participated in building 5,000 affordable homes in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. Marie has been a neighborhood, civil rights, housing and labor organizer, a community journalist, and in 1977 was a founder of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio in Washington, DC.