About
For Love and Struggle is a repository of occasional social commentary, music and musings from Devin Rydel Kelly (AKA Adlib). It explores his contradiction-laden thoughts on the intersections of radical politics, community organizing, music and getting down. Because there are 33 revolutions on the turntable and one in the streets.
Devin has spent over 20 years as a community organizer, DJ and event promoter throughout the Northwest US. He now lives, plays and works in Tacoma, Washington.
DJ BIO
DJ BIO
Tacoma, Washington-based DJ/producer Devin Kelly (AKA Adlib) has been an unwavering techno activist for over twenty years. Whether it was through his humble beginnings in small town Idaho or his decade-plus residencies with the Shameless (Seattle) and Monkey Do (SoCal) DJ crews, he has long been at the center of the region’s dance music underground. While his sound has evolved over the years, it has always centered around house and techno with a sense of moodiness, headiness and urgency. This unique feeling and and old school, narrative mixing style earn him regular headlining spots at clubs, renegades and festivals across the Western US and beyond.
But he is best known for his co-creation of the legendary Esthetic Evolution music and arts festival and his long career as a political and community organizer. Both center bringing community together to create empowering experiences and lasting bonds, whether through music or shared struggle. These backgrounds bring a sense of collective empowerment, resistance and celebration into all of his DJ sets and into events he touches, and led him to perform at, consult for and directly shape numerous major music festivals in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. His newest project, “For Love and Struggle,” uses music, community and social commentary to bridge these worlds, because there are 33 revolutions on the turntable and one in the streets. For booking inquiries, please email bookings@forloveandstruggle.org
ORGANIZING / SPEAKING BIO
ORGANIZING BIO
Tacoma, Washington-based Devin Rydel Kelly has spent over twenty years as a community organizer in Washington and Idaho. He is currently the Director of Data at an education nonprofit and a leader with his local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. Prior, he spent over six years a union organizer and lead researcher with SEIU Local 925, five years as a rank-and-file activist with the University of Washington’s graduate student union, and many more working in political, anti-war and environmental campaigns.
Devin’s organizing work began in 1998, when he co-founded the Idaho Progressive Student Alliance, and later served as statewide organizer. IPSA was Idaho’s first statewide student group working on a variety of social justice causes. IPSA was instrumental in mobilizing student support for a successful multi-year, migrant-led effort for farmworker minimum wage in Idaho. Other key campaigns revolved around building bridges between old growth forest activists and rank-and-file union members facing de-industrialization, fighting racist and homophobic legislation, and coordinating local and statewide direct actions.
Working in Idaho’s intensely conservative and openly white supremacist political climate helped him forge early commitments to anti-racist coalition politics, relational organizing centering voices most impacted by oppression, and viewing political struggle as an active, ongoing process. By the time he left Idaho, IPSA had expanded to three university chapters and several high schools. The organization only survived a few more years, but was instrumental in the political development of many Idaho youth.
Devin earned his MA in Sociology from the University of Washington, where his work focused on political economy, social movement theory and labor studies. He spent four years as lead Teaching Assistant for a nationally recognized introduction to Labor Studies course, co-taught courses on labor research methods, co-created an academic conference, and co-authored academic articles on union democracy. His Master’s Thesis emphasized the intersection of militant organizational culture and rank-and-file democracy in winning victories for the western US International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
This combination of academic and policy work, applied union research and on the ground work has helped him develop as an organizing and research generalist. In both his career and volunteer work, he regularly trains individuals and groups on campaign planning, power and asset mapping, corporate and opposition campaigns, meeting facilitation, continuous improvement, racial equity, data and analytics, logic models, organizational culture and other key areas of social movement work. He currently runs all outreach and education work for his DSA chapter.
Devin is branching out into speaking and consultancy work in any of these or several other areas, and may be available to assist you or your organization. He is taking an equity-centered approach and offers a sliding scale and for Black and Brown or low income organizations, grassroots groups without nonprofit status, or organizing committees without formal union backing or a Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please reach out if you have any questions at all. Email bookings@forloveandstruggle.org
Bookings
Devin is available for DJ bookings, public speaking and consulting on community organizing and organizational culture. Inquire at bookings@forloveandstruggle.org