Abolition as Resurrection

On this Resurrection Sunday, Camille and Jia pass the mic to directly impacted people to engage in a freedom dreaming conversation on reparations. Freedom Dreaming is about imagining into existence a world where everyone has what they need to flourish. This episode will be co-hosted by Andrea James, JD, the Founder and Executive Director of The National Council For Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and Richard Wallace, Founder and Executive Director of Equity and Transformation. They will be in conversation with Avalon Betts-Gaston, JD, Project Manager for IL Alliance for Reentry & Justice and Marvin Slaughter, Interim Director | The African American Leadership and Policy Institute. They engage in an authentic and honest conversation about what reparations means to them and how their vision of reparations would change their lives, the lives of their family and community?

--- RESOURCES You Shall Not Condemn, by Dr. Jenny McBride (not available for pre-order yet) --- CONNECT WITH OUR GUESTS Dr. Jenny McBride Facebook: (please send message beforehand) @jennymcbride jmcbride@mccormick.edu Ethan Facebook: please send message beforehand ethanslyf8@gmail.com --- ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

If resurrection is an ushering in of a new social order where violence, exploitation, and domination don't have the last word and rather restoration, abundance and justice reign, what is the role of reparations as we rebuild and imagine into existence resurrection as abolition? We will be in conversation with Richard Wallace, Robin Rue Simmons, and Lisa Sharon Harper, we will define reparations, and in particular what does reparations mean to black and brown people and our collective liberation? How does the history of systemic racism and intergenerational wounds shape our vision of reparations? Drawing on the wisdom and experience of our guests, what are concrete ways they and their communities of belonging are making reparations concrete? You will also hear from the voices of people directly impacted by the criminal punishment system. They will share what reparations means to them, and how their vision would change their lives and the lives of their family? -- ABOUT OUR HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson

In this episode Camille read a poem by Dr. Martina McGowan entitled “A new song” from her book entitled I am the Rage. This poem is an honest reflection on what it takes to build an abolitionist reality in the midst of the everyday the harm we're experiencing.

Building off of last week's episode, with public health vs. public safety in mind, we will wrestle with the criminalization of mental health. Research shows that nearly half the people in U.S. jails and more than a third of those in U.S. prisons have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In conversation with Rev. Naomi Washington Leaphart and Willette Benford, we will ask: How did American prisons and jails become one of the largest mental health providers in the country? How can we begin to challenge and change the harmful, stimagmizing narratives that criminalize people with the experience of incarceration? Drawing on the wisdom and experience of our guests, how can we engage in a more restorative response towards people impacted by the criminal punishment system? How do these practices point us towards an abolition world? - - - - - ABOUT OUR GUESTS Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart is a Black-queer church girl, preacher, teacher, and activist. She develops spaces of spiritual candor, disruption, reflection, transformation, and action. Rev. Naomi is an adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and is the founder of Salt | Yeast | Light. She also serves the city of Philadelphia as the Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs in the Mayor's Office. She shares life with her wife, their teenage daughter, and a hound dog girl and a black cat boy. Minister Willette Benford, is a mother, leader, social justice advocate, sought-after speaker and systems survivor. Minister Benford spent over two decades inside the Carceral system punished for a survival crime. Minister Benford benefited from a change in the law in 2016 which amended the Illinois Criminal Code and made domestic violence a mitigating factor in sentencing. This resulted in her being the first woman in the State of Illinois to benefit from this new law retroactively and given an immediate release in February of 2019 after serving over 24 years in the Carceral system. - - - - - SHOW NOTES "Be Nobody's Darling" by Alice Walker https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/be-nobody-s-darling/

I'm this meditation episode Camille briefly discusses the connections between mental illness and the prison industrial complete. She reads a poem by Ra Avis from her book Sack Nasty: Prison Poetry by Ra Avis.

In this episode we will be in conversation with Rev. Erica Williams and Marlon Chamberlain, addressing a series of questions to help us better understand the relationship between policing and incarceration and their relationship to public safety and public health. We will explore the differences between accountability and punishment and ask how an abolitionist vision confronts these carceral realities without causing more harm?”

Jia is reading a poem of lament from Antoinette Briley. Antoinette is a student in McCormick Theological Seminary's program for seminary education in jail. This program is one of 4 offered by the Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education at McCormick, also known as SBI. Antoinette wrote her lament during COVID-19 while in pretrial incarceration at the Cook County Jail in the summer of 2021. Antoinette's poem is included in SBI's annual publication entitled The Prayer Collective, which will be available soon at sbimccormick.org.

Abolition cannot happen without being intentional about creating a deep community. We often hear that our liberation is bound up in the liberation of our neighbor. But what exactly does that mean and how do we get there? In this episode, in conversation with Rev. Elle Dowd and Alonzo Waheed, we will wrestle with what it means to be in a deep community. How do we work at building community in ways that center accountability instead of perpetuating logics of punishment? How do we create community cultures that promote both self and collective care? How do we practice mutual aid as an act of solidarity (redistributing our resources within a community)? -- RESOURCES Baptized in Teargas, Rev. Elle Dowd Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, Adrienne Maree Brown --- CONNECT WITH OUT GUESTS Alonzo Waheed, Sr. Rev. Elle Dowd --- Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

In this meditation episode, Camille discusses the role of coerced confession as a form of institutional violence that aids to our society's carceral logics. She will read a poem entitled "Parking Lot, Too" written by Reginald Dewayne Betts. --- SHOW NOTES Felon, Reginald Dwayne Betts The statistics offered in this mediation are cited in the following articles: Examining why false confessions occur in the U.S. criminal justice system (June 23, 2019), Erin Blakemore for the Washington Post; https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/examining-why-false-confessions-occur-in-the-us-criminal-justice-system/2019/06/20/10128bb4-9207-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html False Confessions & Recording Of Custodial Interrogations, The Innocence Project https://innocenceproject.org/false-confessions-recording-interrogations/ --- ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

In our Christian tradition sanctification is defined as the ongoing works of salvation are external and internal transformation. This episode explores the individual, interpersonal, institutional and cultural transformations that need to take place to realize an abolition world. In conversation with Gigi Khanyezi and Rev. Dr. Nikia Smith Roberts, we will wrestle with the following questions: What is carceral logic? What is its relationship to the Christian tradition, in particular around atonement theory. How have we been socialized by it, and how does it show up in our everyday lives within the institutions (schools, workplaces, prisons, churches) we inhabit? How do we begin to replace our reliance on carceral logics with more humanizing and restorative ways of being in a flourishing relationship with ourselves, others and institutions/systems? Specifically how does practicing abolition in our daily lives dismantle carceral logics? --- RESOURCES Stand Your Ground, Dr. Kelly Brown Douglass Prophetic Imagination, Willy J Jenkins (?) Push Out, Monique Morris Talking About Cancel Culture, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson Decolonizing Trauma Work, Renee Linklater My Grandmother's Hands, Resma Menaken Thriving in the Wake of Trauma, Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis Homecoming, Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis Penitence, Plantation and the Penitentiary: A Liberation Theology for Lockdown America, Rev. Nikia Smith Robert, Ph.D https://www.academia.edu/38648000/Penitence_Plantation_and_the_Penitentiary_A_Liberation_Theology_for_Lockdown_America --- STAY CONNECTED Michelle Nehemiah Rising National Association of Community and Restorative Justice www.nacrj.org Dr. Nikia www.nikiasrobert.com Twitter & IG @drnikiasrobert Google: Abolitionist Sanctuary Gigi www.Gigionline.org IG: @jesusandjustice Facebook: gigikhanyezi email: reachout@gigionline.org --- ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

Jia is reading a poem of lament from Stacy Krisik. Stacy is a student in McCormick Theological Seminary's program for seminary education in jail. This program is one of 4 offered by the Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education at McCormick, also known as SBI. Stacy wrote her lament during COVID-19 while in pretrial incarceration at the Cook County Jail in the summer of 2021. Stacy's poem is included in SBI's annual publication entitled The Prayer Collective, which will be available soon at sbimccormick.org. --- RESOURCES The statistics offered in this mediation are cited in the following articles: “Like being in hell': Detainees offer window into Cook County Jail's Covid-19 surge” in Injustice Watch on Feb. 8, 2022. New Report Looks at Strategies to Cut Incarceration of Illinois Women by Half in Truthout in April 29, 2021. Criminalization of Mental Illness To learn more about women and incarceration visit the Women's Justice Initiative at womensjustice.net Visit SBIMcCormick.org to download a copy of the Prayer Collective. --- ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

Abolition is not new. It has a deep history, tradition and praxis both within and outside the Christian faith. This episode will explore the relationship between Christianity and abolition This conversation with Dr. Jemar Tisby and Eboni Nash wrestles with questions like: what is abolition? What ways has the Christian tradition both undermined and propelled the abolition movement? What histories, theologies and practices can we draw upon for hope and wisdom in today's abolition movement? For Christian's eager to join today's abolition movement, what's happening within Christian communities who practice abolition, and how can we learn from them? How do we remain authentic to the abolition movement without co-opting or misusing the works of previous abolitionists? --- RESOURCES: An Abolitionist's Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World, Patrisse Cullors https://bookshop.org/books/an-abolitionist-s-handbook-12-steps-to-changing-yourself-and-the-world/9781250272973 Love and Rage The Path Liberation Through Anger, Lama Rod Owens https://bookshop.org/books/love-and-rage-the-path-of-liberation-through-anger-9781623174095/9781623174095 --- STAY CONNECTED: Eboni Nash: Email: eboninash@braidco.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eboni-nash-91240a139 Coming soon: www.eboniwashere.com Jemar Tisby: Website: https://jemartisby.com/how-to-fight-racism/ Instagram & Twitter: @JemarTisby --- ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS Camille Hernandez www.camillehernandez.com Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: @hellocamilleh Jia Johnson www.jiajohnson.com Instagram & Twitter: @jiaajohnson Facebook: Jia Johnson -- This podcast is hosted in collaboration with McCormick Theological Seminary's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education.

Today's episode provides us with a framework for the weekly guided prayers that we'll be doing through this journey. Every Thursday for the rest of Lent we're going to be interacting in this spiritual practice to grow in our identities as abolitionists. Feel free to listen to this episode and bookmark it to guide your future practices. RESOURCES: "Practicing Everyday Abolition" by Sarah Lamble https://abolitionistfutures.com/latest-news/practising-everyday-abolition

This episode begins with Jia and Camille explaining why they're doing a podcast miniseries specifically for the season of Lent. Then the co-hosts will talk about their faith experience and how their Christian spirituality was resurrected from corrupt systems and ideologies.

Welcome to Abolition as Resurrection! Listen to this trailer to learn more about this podcast miniseries.