Claire Cousin

This interview with Claire Cousin (she/her/hers) took place on Zoom, on October 13, 2021. Claire Cousin is a native of Hudson, New York, a mother of three; soon to be the executive director of a housing coalition; about to take a seat as the first black woman to be elected to the County Board of Supervisors. Claire describes her advocacy work with Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center; how her organizing evolved at SBK in conjunction with the Youth Center and youth programming at Kite’s Nest, a grassroots nonprofit learning center; her creation of Space 101 at Kite’s Nest; her work with the Social Justice Leadership Academy. Claire talks about how she has a growing awareness of the need for BIPOC to have a seat at the table of electoral politics. Claire talks about growing up biracial, and her experiences of imposter syndrome. Claire talks about her impactful experience as a high school student at a mentorship program at Bard College and later in a group of teenage girls of color at TSL (Time & Space Limited). Claire describes the impact of gentrification on housing availability in Hudson. Claire offers an analysis of competing demographic groups in Hudson and how they intersect, or don’t, and how despite the valuing of diversity, wealthy residents can often fail to be accountable to lower-income residents. Claire talks about what makes Hudson special as a “common thread” of creativity, community, and a “deep pull” that makes it hard to leave. Claire describes her life long emotional relationship to the train station; the sounds of trains and the awareness that they are coming through and the way in which this has always triggered memory and desire.Claire describes the electoral, social, and racial dynamic between Hudson as an urban city in the midst of a rural county. Claire names how difficult it is to get white people to be accountable to the ways in which they do harm to people of color within systemic racism, within Hudson.

‍