Our episode this week is just the beginning of more conversations to come! After a few technical difficulties we got into the studio and had an incredible conversation! Our guests are Shawn Marcel of Untitled and Free (@untitledandfree on IG), Richard Cruz of the Ahimsa Collective (www.ahimsacollective.net and @theahimsacollective on IG), and Ant Ammons (@ant_ammons on IG) star of Q Ball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFnFYfCJMg
Drawing on their own experiences with the system and their work back outside, our guests bring us through a nuanced and deep discussion.
We discuss of course the violent murders of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi in upstate NY prisons right across the street from each other. We touch on the organizing which ended Solitary Confinement in CA prisons and present day attempts by the system to expand the practice around the country and to turn former prisons into ICE facilities. We talk through the weaponization of politics, criminalization of our own communities, organizing inside and outside of incarceration, and the need to come together to end mass incarceration globally. Too much to write here, and even more to come when we get these folks back on in future episodes!!
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Rudy is the creator of Blacksky, an algorithm to connect Black users on Bluesky and the basis for other community algorithms on Bluesky. Check it out at blacksky.xyz
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Rudy also created Papertree.earth, a joint bank account for community groups to collectively manage finances.
We The People NYC is a community-led mutual aid group that runs a hot food & clothes distro every Thursday @ 1PM on the corner of Fulton & Nostrand in Bed-Stuy & every Saturday @ 1PM on 125th Street & Lexington Ave in Harlem.
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