Abolition, Activism, and the Imagination: A Roundtable with Movement Leaders

SPEAKERS: KRIS HENDERSON, ELIJAH PATTERSON, LESLIE CREDLE, KAMAU BUTCHER, AND WILLIAM GOLDSBY

This event will feature presentations by and conversations between activists in the movement to end mass incarceration. The speakers will represent organizations working with Harvard students through the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship and History and Literature. Speakers will include Kris Henderson (Amistad Law Project), Elijah Patterson (Black and Pink MA), Leslie Credle (Justice 4 Housing), Kamau Butcher (People's Coalition for Safety and Freedom), and William Goldsby (Reconstruction, Inc.). In addition to sharing about their work and its relation to prison abolition, they will reflect, in particular, on how the humanities—history, language, storytelling, and the imagination—inform their activism and their vision of social change. Students from the History and Literature seminar, “Prison Abolition,” will help craft and ask the discussion questions for the panel.

About the Organizations

Amistad Law Project is a public interest law firm and organizing project working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania and fighting to get our communities the resources they need to thrive.

Black and Pink MA is a volunteer-fueled organization working for abolition of the criminal punishment system, which disproportionately impacts lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people, as well as those living with HIV.

Justice 4 Housing is a grassroots organization commited to ending housing discrimination and homelessness for justice involved individuals impacted by incarceration and domestic violence.

People's Coalition for Safety and Freedom represents a diverse network of organizations led by Black and brown organizers, researchers, justice activists, and people impacted by policing and incarceration who are working toward a new vision of community safety and freedom.

Reconstruction, Inc. developed their transformative Community Capacity-Building Curriculum (CCBC) to heal our collective, familial, and personal wounds on a political and clinical level. Since its founding in 1992, Reconstruction has mentored individuals as well as emerging groups.

Resources from the Panelists

Reformist reforms vs.abolitionist steps to end IMPRISONMENT (infographic): http://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CR_abolitioniststeps_antiexpansion_2021_eng.pdf

Police "reforms" you should always oppose (article): https://transformharm.org/police-reforms-you-should-always-oppose/

Homes For All (petition): https://actionnetwork.org/letters/homesforall-letter

An Act Securing Housing Options for Eligible Tenants with a History of Criminal Justice Involvement (petition): https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/hd4041/

About the Event

This event is made possible by the Provostial Fund for Arts and Humanities, the Committee on Degrees on History and Literature, the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship, and the Mahindra Humanities Center.

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