Autorentext

The W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction is a political education program for aspiring revolutionaries and movement leaders from those communities most impacted by poverty, policing, and mass incarceration.

Through participatory and collective study of political economy, the history of global resistance movements, and the theoretical and practical aspects of social change, we aim to teach a new generation of organic intellectuals not only how to understand the world, but more importantly, how to change it.

Klappentext

The inaugural issue of the movement-focused and future-forward Abolition Journal quarterly after it was relaunched by the Philadelphia-based Abolition School.

This pilot issue of the revived Abolition Journal is produced by the Philadelphia-based W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction. It brings together two dozen urgent and timely interventions in political debates around abolition and aims to show how this abstract idea manifests itself in our daily lives.

These interventions, authored by a diverse cast of contributors, including academics and attorneys, so-called felons and physicians, artists and educators, and parents, playwrights and poets, explore the everyday experiences that come with trying to live out an abolitionist politics. In the words of the editors, these experiences include “the daily victories and errands, reflections and runarounds, gestures and drama, habits and heartbreaks, setbacks and surrenders, excuses and evasions, breakdowns and breakthroughs.”

The issue curates a variety of content, including political essays, short stories, poetry, interviews, and speeches, each resonating and reflecting in their own unique way on the central theme “Everyday Sh!t.” They offer thoughts and reflections on structure, practice, care, and direction to deepen existing movement knowledge and invite new audiences to see themselves mirrored within this work.
Without exception, these are stories of sincere experience mixed with radical poetic visions culled from the issue contributors’ plurality of pasts, presents, and prefigurative futures. Grounded in Philadelphia, yet looking out onto the whole wide world, Abolition Journal aims to reflect the lived complexity that can be messy and self-defeating, but equally authentic and inspiring.

Inhalt

Editors’ Notes: On Direction & On Poetry | Christopher R. Rogers and Gabriel Ramirez

1. Abolition is a Brick: On the Origins of the Du Bois Movement School | Geo Maher
2. The High School Lunch Table Reimagined | David A. Gaines
3. Relearning the Language of Care | Alexandrea Henry
4. Tossed About the Room | Tongo Eisen-Martin
5. From Abolition School to Palestine | Farwa Zaidi in convo w/ Nneka Azuka & Talia Charidah
6. Movement Moments: PAO Rally Speech | Nneka A.
7. protest | Raina J. León
8. The Kids | Alyesha Wise
9. All (Purchasing) Power to the People | Saskia Kercy
10. (communique #1) | S. R. Lalo
11. From Intention to Liberation | Abbas Naqvi
12. Standardized Test | Taylor Alyson Lewis
13. The New Republic of Kindergarten | Hiwot Adilow
14. Lost Lady. Found Niece. | Kiian Dawn
15. Holding the Jagged Edges | Shantell Missouri
16. Prison Radio Suite x Abolition Journal | Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, KnowledgeBorn GodAllah, Krystal Clark, & Spoon Jackson
17. “Ultimately, What Any of Us Want is Structural Change” | No Arena in Chinatown x Abolition Journal Roundtable
18. Healing “Body & Soul” | Jake Sonnenberg of Healthcare Workers for Abolition
19. Abolition Starts at Home | frenchy, Han & zara of the The Philly Childcare Collective
20. Maximizing Study & Struggle between Haiti and Philadelphia | Talie Cerin & James Beltis x Woy Magazine
21. Migrant Justice, Border Abolition & The Resistance of Now | Sterling K. Johnson in convo w/ Viktoria Zerda
22. Movement Life-in-the-Along & the Grand (Re)Vision of Abolition Journal | Christopher R. Rogers