Shortly after the hunger strike concluded, Teen Vogue spoke to New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and actor and activist Cynthia Nixon, who were both participants in that action. “At one level, my body is definitely in a state of relief,” Mamdani, 32, a longtime organizer for Palestinian rights who now represents Queens, told Teen Vogue. No stranger to this kind of tactic, in 2021 Mamdani was part of a hunger strike on behalf of striking taxi workers in New York City. “But my soul, my mind, I would say, is in a deep sense of sadness.”