I first read the “Letter to the Anti-Rape Movement” from Santa Cruz Women Against Rape in the mid-1990s. It was a balm. I was already becoming disenchanted with the funded anti gender-based violence field. The survivors I was working with consistently rejected what we were offering, which were mainly legal solutions. That open letter sent me down a rabbit hole to learn more about the actual history of anti-rape and anti-domestic violence organizing. I learned that at every point in history ideas were contested. One side won and others lost. History did not play out as a series of waves but rat ..read more

“Mutual aid is a term to describe people giving each other needed material support, trying to resist the control dynamics, hierarchies and system-affirming, oppressive arrangements of charity and social services. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives in government, but by actually building new social relations that are more survivable.” – http://bigdoorbrigade.com INTRODUCTORY FRAMEWORKS The Strategy of ..read more

Jordan DeLoach In 1951, the Sojourners for Truth and Justice wrote ‘A Call to Negro Women’ to protest the violence, racism, and sexism that Black women experience. Around 130 Black women joined them in Washington, DC to demand justice, safety, and freedom. In this zine, Ashley Farmer and I write essays about the significance of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice in the development of Black feminism and the legacy of Black women freedom fighters. The zine was designed by Jordan De Loach.  The zine can be viewed online here. For those who want to download the zine and share it with others ..read more

An Invitation… When I first listened to the audio stories that are part of “Two Sides of Justice” a couple of years ago, I could not get them out of my head. The pain of the losses suffered and the grief that I heard expressed lingered. But I was also struck by the resilience that was clearly evident though I should not have been. I’ve worked alongside people who have been victimized by violence and who have perpetrated violent acts for over 25 years. Their stories are complex and nuanced.   I had been in community with both Kathryn Bocanegra and Grant Buhr and am a great a ..read more

The Roads by Joanne Armour In July 2019, I asked for submissions on Facebook and Twitter in response to the following question: “When you’ve felt at your lowest, was there a piece of advice, a quote, a poem, an excerpt from a book that someone shared with you that was a lifeline? What was it?” I also requested contributions from incarcerated people as part of a letter writing event hosted by Survived and Punished NY in August. In all, I received 130 contributions. They were all wonderful and so very moving. I reached out to my friend Hana for help. Hana read through everything and selected s ..read more

I haven’t posted about it here but I wrote a children’s book titled “Missing Daddy.” It was republished by Haymarket Books and is actually currently on sale if you purchase it directly through them at 50% off for the holidays. I have a website for the book as well that includes more resources. As I’ve been doing some book events, I wanted to create a document that would summarize some of the things to keep in mind when discussing incarceration with children. For example, I share the following key ideas to discuss with children who have incarcerated loved ones: You are not alone – many other ch ..read more

I asked my comrade Flynn Nichols to create an illustrated document summarizing some words by Sonya Shah of the Ahimsa Collective. The following are the illustrations that Flynn created. You can download them as PDF’s here and here ..read more

It all started with this tweet in April… You can skip all of the blah blah blah below and just take a look at the wonderful #Map4Youth 2019 grantees here. We had over 90 applications and they were all terrific. Congratulations to the 14 projects selected for grants! You can also read the stuff below if you want some context and information for how we got to selecting these wonderful projects. #Map4Youth or the Mutual Aid Project for Youth is a temporary grassroots initiative launched by me @prisonculture. As stated on the Big Door Brigade website: “Mutual aid projects are a form of political p ..read more

Art by Molly Costello (2019) Fumbling Toward Repair is a workbook by Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan that includes reflection questions, skill assessments, facilitation tips, helpful definitions, activities, and hard-learned lessons intended to support people who have taken on the coordination and facilitation of formal community accountability (CA) processes to address interpersonal harm & violence. You can now pre-order the workbook here. IMPORTANT NOTE: This workbook is NOT an introduction to community accountability. You will NOT learn how to facilitate processes by reading this workbook ..read more

I first read the “Letter to the Anti-Rape Movement” from Santa Cruz Women Against Rape in the mid-1990s. It was a balm. I was already becoming disenchanted with the funded anti gender-based violence field. The survivors I was working with consistently rejected what we were offering, which were mainly legal solutions. That open letter sent me down a rabbit hole to learn more about the actual history of anti-rape and anti-domestic violence organizing. I learned that at every point in history ideas were contested. One side won and others lost. History did not play out as a series of waves but rat ..read more