Damian Platt

Damian Platt was born in Nairobi, Kenya. Growing up in London, he studied modern languages at Edinburgh University. He subsequently spent eighteen months working with Redemptorist Catholic missionaries in Tocantins, in the northern interior of Brazil. There followed eight years at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London. In 2005, he relocated to Rio de Janeiro to work for AfroReggae, a favela-based youth and culture organisation, which he described in his book Culture is Our Weapon, co-authored with Patrick Neate. Later he teamed up with TED prizewinning French artist JR to work on his Women are Heroes project in Rio. In 2019, he mobilised a team of local and international volunteers to build a world-class skate park in the Maré favela complex. In 2011, he completed a Master of Studies in International Relations at Cambridge University – the same year in which he was awarded an MBE by the Foreign Office of the British Government, for “services to community development and human rights” in Rio de Janeiro. He is a qualified teacher in the UK, since completing the Teach First leadership programme in 2018. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Jacobin, Open Democracy, Quillette, New Statesman, The Stool Pigeon, Shook and The Socialist Lawyer.