About Mush

Hey, you found me.

You’re probably here because you’re wondering what I do, who I am, and if Mush is my government name. (It’s a nickname—got it when I was 12. I hated it then but it’s become the name my heart responds to.)

It’s a good time to tell you that I’m a lot of things—my bio confirms this. (I’m going to do some bragging later.) Who I am and how I move through and with the world comes down to a few simple but important things: people, dignity, and love. All people deserve dignity. Any place where indignity exists demands love. Full stop.

I imagine. I struggle. I believe. I try and fail and try again. This is what makes me tick—to make dignity and love real for all of us.

I hope you find the stories, tools, and teams that have been a part of my journey inspiring and useful in your own.

It’s great to meet you,

A black and white illustration of a laptop, a smartphone, and a notepad with a pen, arranged on a desk.

Illustrator: Miriam Klein Stahl

Hella Feminist exhibit (2022), a site-specific installation featuring 300 papercut portraits exploring collective stories of feminism by author Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl, Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA).

Illustrator: Miriam Klein Stahl

Black and white drawing of a woman smiling, wearing earrings, a necklace, and a dark top, with her hair styled up.

PROFESSIONAL BIO

Michelle Lee, affectionately known as Mush, is a nationally-recognized nonprofit leader, policy advocate, cultural strategist, organizer, consultant, and published poet with 23 years of experience leading for justice and joy. As a former executive director of the country’s largest youth literary arts and spoken word nonprofit (Youth Speaks, Inc.), her visionary leadership in the field has been recognized by the United States Department of Education, the MacArthur Foundation, Harvard University, the City of Oakland, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and others. She has managed a $10M budget, launched national narrative initiatives centering youth artists, stewarded $1.5M in grants for culture bearers designing just cities, and continues to be an organizing voice for children, youth, artists, AAPI communities, and multi-racial solidarity movements.

As a writer and poet, Mush's voice and stories have been featured on HBO, PBS, AfroPop, The New York Times, and Vogue. Her writing has been commissioned for national campaigns and feature films, and appears in All the Women in My Family Sing. Her talks and essays on Hip Hop and spoken word pedagogy are published in Freedom Moves (2025) and The Room Is On Fire (2019). Michelle is also the co-principal of several story-based public health research projects in partnership with Dr. Dean Schillinger, former chief of medicine at UCSF Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, and was recently published in Frontiers Journal of Public Health.

Her San Francisco Bay Area-based narrative consulting firm, Whole Story Group, has produced storytelling pop-up events, online courses, narrative research, and digital toolkits, along with professional learning and training programs for partners like Othering & Belonging Institute, AnitaB.org, RYSE Center, and The Center for Cultural Power.

As one of the country’s first Cultural Strategists-in-Government for the City of Oakland, Mush has infused policymaking with innovative problem-solving. Michelle was a key leader in the rebirth of the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission and, in 2021, was appointed Vice Chair, advising the Office of the Mayor and City Council on policy activating the vitality of cultural life. Mush’s leadership was instrumental in organizing Oakland’s Artists-in-Action coalition that successfully secured $3.9M for artists and cultural infrastructure, convening a 2022 mayoral candidates forum on arts and culture, and co-producing Stories of Solidarity, a townhall amplifying a legacy of solidarity between AAPI and Black cultural communities.

Mush’s leadership is a rare blend of visionary and grounded action. She is a do-er with remarkable cultural fluency, and an impressive record of leading organizations at moments of change and guiding them towards newfound energy and growth.

Some say she does a lot. She says she does what she can. Each precise point in her journey is proof that there isn’t one way to make good and lasting change in the world, and in people’s lives.

A black background with pink handwritten-style text that says 'me'.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

• Mayor's Proclamation, Barbara Lee, City of Oakland
• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA 100 
• City of Oakland AAPI Heritage Month Artist

PROFESSIONAL FELLOWSHIPS

• MacArthur Foundation/Rockwood Institute Art of Leadership Fellowship    
• Harvard University Project Zero Fellowship 
• CompassPoint Next Generation Leaders of Color Fellowship

ACADEMIC RESEARCH

• Lee Michelle, Schillinger Dean, Cortez Gabriel. The ‘Survival Pending Revolution’ COVID-19 vaccination campaign: An example of critical communication theory in action, Frontiers in Public Health Volume 11, June 18, 2023.

PUBLISHED POETRY & TALKS

• Lee, Michelle. "stay." All the Women in My Family Sing edited by Deborah Santana, Nothing But the Truth Publishing, 2018.

• Lee, Michelle. "Beyond Trauma: Storytelling as Cultural Shift and Collective Healing.” Freedom Moves: Hip Hop Knowledges, Pedagogies, and Futures edited by H. Samy Alim, Jeff Chang, Casey Philip Wong, University of California Press, 2023.

Close-up of a pink silk or satin fabric with soft folds and flowing lines.

A woman with dark hair styled in an updo, wearing a black shirt with gold lettering and a pink skirt, surrounded by pink and purple flowers, a South Korean flag, a book titled 'Absence in the palms of my hands,' and a butterfly.

MY JOURNEY

Early Years

2003-2004

• My career journey began in Bay Area public schools and tutoring programs working with middle school students in East Palo Alto and Richmond, California. My students came from working class neighborhoods—Pacific Islander, East Asian, Black, and Latine children—navigating educational, political, and cultural invisibility. Those early experiences as a teacher taught me the power of literacy and authentic representation, and sparked what would become a lifelong commitment to create more opportunities for young people to write, speak, and be heard.

Education

2004-2010

• I received my Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from the University of California, Berkeley, and majored in Communications with dreams of becoming a journalist. In 2010, I graduated with my Masters of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed) from San Francisco State University summa cum laude, this time with ambitions to work in higher education.

Writing & Poetry

2004 - Present

My writing and art have been guided by world-class artists.

• I toured an early stage reading of a one-woman show, "Regarding Women," directed and choreographed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and produced by Joan Osato (Living Word Project) and Sean San Jose (Intersection for the Arts). "Regarding Women" was presented at the New Works Festival (San Francisco) and Under the Radar Festival (New York).

• Featured on season 6 of HBO Def Poetry Jam, and have shared stages with luminaries like Janice Mirikitani, Jeff Chang, Bob Holman, Andrea Gibson, Genny Lim, Sunni Patterson, Saul Williams, George Clinton, Harrison Ford, Mos Def, Hope Solo, and David Banner.

Policy & Advocacy

2019-2025

My passion for policy and commitment to service started in high school, when I served as a student school board representative for West Contra Costa Unified School District (formerly Richmond Unified School District). Early experiences in civic leadership, deep listening, and hands-on organizing helped shape my advocacy journey.

Organizing Highlights

• Co-organizer, From the Bay to Atlanta: Stop AAPI Hate vigil and Stories of Solidarity: Black & AAPI Artists Unite town hall (2021)
• Co-organizer, Artists-in-Action, a coalition of 400+ artists, cultural instutions, labor leaders working together to secure $3.5M for arts and culture in city of Oakland (2022).
• Co-organizer, 2022 Oakland Mayoral Candidates Forum, in partnership with the Cultural Affairs Commission (City of Oakland), Cal Humanities, Youth Speaks, The Oaklandside (2022).

Commission Highlights

• Vice chair & member, Cultural Affairs Commission, City of Oakland (2019-2025)
• Advisory Board, Funding Advisory Committee, City of Oakland (2020)
• Selection Committee, inagural Poet Laureate Program, City of Oakland (2021)

Consulting & Coaching

2017-2021

• Founded Whole Story Group, LLC, a narrative-based organizational development and coaching consultancy, partnering with private and public sector leaders.

Returning Home to Lead Youth Speaks

2021-2025

• In 2021, 18 years after stepping onto a stage at my first open mic, I returned to Youth Speaks as executive director to lead the organization that nurtured me as a young poet. Youth Speaks, Inc. is the nation’s largest youth literary arts and spoken word nonprofit committed to advancing the power of young people’s voices through spoken word, civic leadership, and narrative power. In 2024, I had the honor of representing Youth Speaks and Bay Area youth writers in Washington, D.C. at the Biden/Harris Adminstration's inagural White House Youth Policy Summit.