​Our Team

​We are so grateful to be working with such inspiring individuals and cannot say enough about our amazing team! But don't take our word for it, see for yourself...

Interested in joining the team?
We'd love to have you! Check out our open positions.

TOUR GUIDE

Jay Toole

​Jay Toole is Co-Founder and Shelter Director at Queers for Economic Justice, a progressive non-profit org. committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation. Jay spearheaded movements at QEJ, which resulted in 2 written policy changes at the Dept. of Homeless Services and the City of New York. In 2006, transgender folks were ensured the right to self determine which side of the shelter system to enter, and in 2007 a policy was created for homeless queer families to be housed and sheltered together. These policies continue to be honored today, and because of Jay’s work, QEJ became the first and only LGBTQ organization to facilitate support groups for queer individuals inside the shelter system. Jay has since begun a new chapter, moving forward with her long time dream of Jay’s House. Currently she is working alongside her team to create the very first LGBTQ adult shelter in the country.

Current Tours
Queer History of the Village

TOUR GUIDE

Michael Higgins Jr.

​Michael is a community organizer now working at the Brooklyn Movement Center. He first started organizing as a member with Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) with its Accountable Development Campaign, which is the basis for much of the content of the Gentrification in Downtown Brooklyn tour. He was later hired as a part-time and then lead organizer at FUREE, building leadership with members around environmental justice, land use and public housing policy in Gowanus. Michael’s interests include language learning, curriculum development and political education.

Current Tours
Environmental Justice in Gowanus
Gentrification in Downtown Brooklyn

TOUR GUIDE

Lucy Piccochi

​Lucy is an ardent explorer of history, art, philosophy, politics and the places where all these intersect. She combines it all into her job as an educator at the Tenement Museum, the free public tours of art she leads at the Brooklyn Museum, and walking the storied streets of Manhattan with Social Justice Tours, as well as in her own art and musings. She’s been living in Brooklyn for 10 years, in collective houses big and small, and enjoys giving her time and art to lots of rad organizations such as Bushwick City Farm community garden and the 4th Street Food Co-op.

Current Tours
Women’s History of the Village
Protests & Riots in the East & West Village

TOUR GUIDE

Cindy Cooper

​Cindy Cooper is journalist, author and playwright who focuses on social justice. She is the founder of the Reproductive Freedom Festival and Words of Choice, theater programs devoted to raising reproductive freedom through the arts, and is the editor of Short Plays on Reproductive Freedom. She previously served as the Communications Director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, and, as a journalist or consultant has written over 200 articles about reproductive freedom for Ms. Magazine, Women’s eNews, On the Issues Magazine, In These Times, Open Society, Women in a Globalizing World, Perspectives on Women and Law, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, International History conference, elected officials and more. 

Current Tours
Reproductive Freedom in Lower Manhattan

TOUR GUIDE

Gregory Baggett

Gregory received his doctoral training in history at Columbia University and teaches at various universities around the New York tri-state area. He founded the New York Council of Housing Development Fund Companies (NYC HDFC) in 2008, and serves as a housing consultant specializing in limited-equity cooperative and low income rental housing. A long time Harlem resident, he is the founder of the A. Philip Randolph Square Neighborhood Alliance to address concerns around green spaces, historic preservation and community revitalization.

Current Tours
Rezoning & Dysplacement in Central Harlem

TOUR GUIDE

Rebecca Manski

Rebecca is an independent researcher and street level Educator specializing in the history of the Wall Street area, currently based at the South Street Seaport Museum. She first became intrigued by Lower Manhattan during her years with Occupy Wall Street’s Press Working Group. Before moving to New York to complete an Interdisciplinary Masters in Public History and Middle Eastern Studies, Rebecca lived in Palestine, doing media and advocacy work with a plethora of Palestinian organizations between 2003 and 2008. Having also lived the first five years of her life in Jerusalem, Rebecca’s thinking has always been informed by issues of displacement, walls, borders, liminal spaces, zones of indistinction, the Commons, and decolonization.

Current Tours
A People’s History of Immigration, from New York Harbor to Little Syria
A People’s History of Wall Street

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FOUNDER

Dan Kaminsky

​Dan was born and raised in Brooklyn. From Palestine to Chiapas Mexico, labor organizing to the environmental movement, he’s been involved in organizing efforts of one kind or another throughout the majority of his adult life. Dan started giving tours as a day job to help get through school and pay rent. While doing so, he began to dream up a project to run tours about the issues of which he cared most deeply. He began to study. The more Dan studied the more he began to look at the city in new ways; seeing things he hadn't seen before, and understanding processes and trends in a new light. The more he learned, the less he realized he knew, and the more shocked he became at the stories he learned. Dan hopes to share this information and passion with all of you.