Kite Line is a radio program devoted to prison issues around the Midwest and beyond. Behind the prison walls, a message is called a kite: whispered words, a note passed hand to hand, or a request submitted to the guards for medical care. Illicit or not, s
Bloomington, Indiana
The Kite Line podcast is an absolute must-listen for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the prison system and the injustices that pervade American society. This syndicated radio program, hosted by women, features interviews with prisoners, activists, and professors that are as enlightening as they are emotionally impactful. The combination of personal stories and historical context provided by this podcast creates a powerful narrative that opens our eyes to the abuses of power within prisons.
One of the best aspects of The Kite Line is how easy it is to listen to. The hosts have a knack for engaging storytelling and their interviews are both funny and inspiring, while still delving into the sobering realities faced by individuals within the prison system. It's refreshing to hear directly from those affected by incarceration and it provides a unique perspective that we don't often get in mainstream media.
Additionally, The Kite Line's dedication to providing up-to-date news updates on prison struggles is commendable. Their well-edited format allows for a seamless integration of interviews, letters, news segments, art, and original research. This variety in content keeps listeners engaged and encourages further thought and engagement with the issues surrounding incarceration.
While there is much to appreciate about The Kite Line podcast, one potential downside is its focus on specific regions like the Midwest. While this may limit its scope in terms of geographic coverage, it also allows for in-depth analysis of local prison struggles. Nonetheless, it would be beneficial if they could expand their coverage to encompass more diverse perspectives from across the country.
In conclusion, The Kite Line podcast deserves high praise for its ability to shed light on systemic injustices within American prisons. By amplifying the voices of scholars, activists, and those directly impacted by incarceration, this podcast becomes an invaluable resource for anyone interested in prison abolition or seeking to understand the devastating effects of our current prison system. I highly recommend tuning into The Kite Line to gain a deeper understanding of the prison industrial complex and its impact on society.
This week, we interview Orisanmi Burton on his book Tip of the Spear- Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. The Attica prison uprising was a monumental rupture emerging out of the movements for black liberation of the 60s. Burton reflects on his conversations with people who took part in the revolt, new …
This week we return to the Pittsburgh Anti-Repression Convergence. From this unprecedented cop city RICO indictment to the nation-wide retaliation against students and others protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the repression of social movements has become a shared experience for activists across North America. In this context, the Pittsburgh Anti-Repression Convergence (or, PARC) was …
From this unprecedented cop city RICO indictment to the nation-wide retaliation against students and others protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the repression of social movements has become a shared experience for activists across North America. In this context, the Pittsburgh Anti-Repression Convergence (or, PARC) was organized this past summer. Over the course of three …
“Organizing Everywhere” was a panel discussion at Redbud Books organized by the Monroe County anti-jail activist group, Care Not Cages. It convened four organizers involved in related struggles: two organizing against new county jails in Indiana, one in Fort Wayne and one in Bloomington; one Kentucky-based activist fighting prison expansion in Appalachia, and a filmmaker …
The Mississippi Five are the last remaining women sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after ten years, before Mississippi virtually abolished parole in 1995. Although they have been parole-eligible for three decades, the state has routinely denied their release without reasonable justification. They have been imprisoned for over 175 years and denied parole …
In this episode we air a recording from the final talk of the Pittsburgh Anti-Repression Convergence, which served as a space for activists, political prisoner supporters, and former political prisoners to strategize against repression in the context of social movements, with an eye towards total liberation for the earth and all of it's inhabitants. We'll …
This week, we are sharing a piece created for Montreal community radio station CKUT, on the show Other Worlds on Earth. The piece provides an excellent analysis of the case against Krystal and Peppy, two organizers in Pittsburgh targeted by the FBI and who are alleged to have acted in solidarity with trans people. After …
After our news, we are sharing the final installment of our conversation with Leon Benson, who was recently exonerated and released after decades in the Indiana prison system. Leon is an inspiring organizer who fought for freedom for other prisoners, organized self-education circles inside, and has, since release, jumped into important community empowerment projects. We …
This week, we spoke with an NYU professor about the Gaza encampment movement there. Through this conversation, the global stakes of place-based struggles come to the foreground, as we wrestle with balancing local demands for divestment versus the way the camps themselves are resonating in Gaza; Palestinians seem most excited by the fact that a …
Eight days ago, students and others established a tent camp – a Liberated Zone – at IU’s Dunn Meadow, as part of a national rising tide of protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. Within hours, Indiana State Police arrived from Indianapolis and attacked the students, injuring dozens and arresting 34 students and faculty. The protesters …
This week, we focus on two people who are studies in dignity in the face of state repression. Jack Mazurek was arrested in Atlanta yesterday and charged with arson. These allegations stemmed from an attack last July on police motorcycles, which was rooted in the movement against Cop City. He is standing strong despite the …
For our first episode of the new year, we wanted to begin sharing an interview with Leon Benson. In this conversation, he covers his release from prison, reflections on the treatment he received from the authorities, and his work on the outside. This is a special privilege for Kite Line, since we have aired Benson’s …
In this episode, we have our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle. Afterwards, we have a conversation with Sophia Johnson, also known as Candle, who is an anarchist writer who currently serving a sentence in Oregon. In this conversation, she talks about writing in prison, and her ongoing struggle to …
Since 2021, a diverse movement in has challenged the construction of Cop City, which is slated to destroy Atlanta’s South River Forest. The forest is also known by its Muscogee name, Weelaunee. The movement has created new intersections between abolitionist and environmental politics, since it is defending a forest with important ecological elements for the surrounding …
On today’s Kite Line, we are sharing more research conducted collectively by Micol Seigel’s Inside-Out class. Last spring, this course brought together students at Indiana University and students held by the Indiana Department of Corrections. This presentation is focused on the tension between surveillance and sousveillance, a term for when apparatuses like social media and …
Content Warning: This episode contains references to sexual trauma and harm. We start off this episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle- followed by some recent prison news. We close our episode with a feature created by students as part of Dr. Micol Seigel's Inside Out program at …
And now we return to the second part of our conversation between Micol Seigel and Amanda Hall. Last week, Hall talked to us about how her firsthand experience of incarceration led her to her current work in prisoner and re-entry support. And now she talks through her continuing advocacy through Dream.org and the ACLU. You …
For this episode, we share the first part of a conversation between Micol Seigel and Amanda Hall. Hall talks to us about how her firsthand experience of incarceration led her to her current work in prisoner and re-entry support. We will air the second part of this conversation next week. You can find out more …
On the morning of May 31st, Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department raided a house and arrested three staff members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund is a non profit organization that supports those arrested for protesting or otherwise prosecuted for involvement in social movements. Over the last year, the …
This week on Kite Line we air a discussion from 2021, in which we speak with prison abolitionist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law. We share the first part of our discussion on their recent book, Prison by Any Other Name: Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book is an in-depth look at the various …
The U.S. was shaken this week by the death of Lashawn Thompson in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail. He had been moved to the psychiatric ward after being jailed on a simple battery charge. Physically healthy when he was arrested, he was left in a cell infested with bed bugs and other vermin. Michael Harper, an …
This week, we share the final part of a conversation about policing sex. Micol Seigel talks to Anne Gray Fischer about her book, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification. Today, their focus turns to Boston and Atlanta, discussing Boston's vice district, known as the Combat Zone, and …
First, we have our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle. Afterwards, Angela Davis shares a statement in support of the Stop Cop City movement. And we finish sharing a panel hosted by Haymarket Books on the abolitionist struggle to Stop Cop City. In this section, we hear organizer Kwame Olufemi …
This week we continue sharing a panel hosted by Haymarket Books on the abolitionist struggle to stop Cop City. In this section, we hear Hugh Farrell in conversation with Sarah Haley, a leading historian of Black feminism in the South, organizer Kwame Olufemi of Community Movement Builders, and journalist Micah Herskind. Haley roots contemporary resistance to …
This week, we continue sharing Haymarket Press’s panel, “the Abolitionist Struggle against Cop City.” In this segment, Stuart Schrader and Micah Herskind fill in the past 40 years of historical context for why the Cop City project is being pushed through specifically in Atlanta. Schrader teaches at Johns Hopkins University and wrote Badges without Borders: How …
This week we begin sharing a panel hosted by Haymarket Books on the abolitionist struggle to stop Cop City. In this section, we hear from Kwame Olufemi, of Community Movement Builders, and Sarah Haley, a leading historian of Black feminism in the South. Olufemi powerfully situates in the Cop City proposal in Atlanta’s recent history. …
During a dramatic week of action in the Atlanta forest this past week, hundreds of forest defenders sabotaged a construction site for the unpopular “Cop City” development. Police responded with an act of extreme collective punishment against the entire movement, attacking a nearby Stop Cop City music festival, tasing, beating, and arresting concertgoers at random. …
From March 4-11th, thousands of people will be converging in Atlanta's Weelaunee Forest, as part of the abolitionist and environmentalist struggle to stop “Cop City,” a police training facility set to be built over a vast urban forest. Reflecting this unprecedented mobilization, we are focusing on the history and current stakes of the struggle. For …
Earlier this week, Keith LaMar went on hunger strike at the Ohio State Penitentiary. He has faced escalating harassment from administrators and guards as his execution this fall looms and as solidarity momentum builds on the outside. This harassment extends to new arbitrary rules preventing him from wearing spiritually-significant jewelry and systematic interruptions during visits. …
This we continue our conversation between Micol Seigel and Anne Gray Fischer about her recent book, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification, an account of gender and sexuality's crucial role in the history and exercise of police power. [ Here are our previous episodes ] with Anne Gray …
We start this week's episode with our monthly round up of prison protests and disturbances, compiled by Perilous Chronicle. After that, we share an Interview with Maru Moro Villalpando of La Resistencia, a project that organizes against the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. Once again, prisoners within the detention center have gone on hunger …
Today's episode highlights the campaign to close Rikers jail in New York and continues our conversation with Anne Gray Fischer about the intertwined stories of policing, the surveillance of women's bodies, and the creation of the racialized American ghetto. Both Sy, an organizer against Rikers, and Gray Fischer, extend the histories of control and racial …
This week, we reflect on the complex lethality of the white supremacist system in the United States, as it has dealt out death to Black people and others whose lives are devalued within this system. We are responding to the release of the footage earlier this week of Tyre Nichols' murder by Memphis police, which …
Today, we share the tragic news that police killed Tortuguita, a forest defender in the South River Forest in Atlanta on the morning of Wednesday, January 19th. We have previously covered the movement to protect the Atlanta forest in light of its history as a plantation and prison farm and the future plans to build …
We are pleased to continue sharing a conversation between Micol Seigel and Anne Gray Fischer. Fischer's powerful book, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification, was published in 2022, and is an account of gender and sexuality's crucial role in the history and exercise of police power. In this …
We are pleased to share the first part of an interview between Anne Gray Fischer and Micol Siegel. Fischer’s powerful first book, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification, was published earlier in 2022, and is an account of gender and sexuality’s crucial role in the history and exercise …
December 17th marked two years since the passing of Russell Maroon Shoatz. He was a founding member of the Black Unity Council, a former member of the Black Panther Party and a soldier in the Black Liberation Army. After twice escaping from prison, and twice being recaptured, Shoatz was held in solitary confinement for more …
This week, we speak again with Isaiah Willoughby. Last time he was on the show, he reflected on being incarcerated due to the 2020 George Floyd Uprising. He was released from prison last March, but he’s now housed once again in SeaTac Federal Detention Center on a parole violation. It took three separate calls to …
This week, we feature interviews on Life After Lockup from the Kunta Kenyatta Files. Kunta Kenyatta uses YouTube to speak to a range of people in Cleveland, Ohio, often featuring videos shot from the 107 Club, a half-way house and neighborhood hub. He speaks with neighbors, former prisoners, and others, amplifying important voices and preserving memory …
We turn our focus this week to a local struggle. Here in Bloomington Indiana, Monroe County Government is quickly moving forward with a proposal for a new $60+ million dollar jail to replace and expand the downtown jail. With little input from community members, consultants hired by the county have recommended jail expansion, and the …
We start out with news about the recent execution of Kevin Johnson in Missouri, and a call to strike from Pennslyvania prisoners. Afterwards, we share an interview conducted by James Kilgore, who spoke with Albert Woodfox and Robert King of the Angola 3. After that, we will feature part of Kilgore's interview with Sekou Kambui, …
This week, we share the second installment of a talk by Dina Alves, an abolitionist researcher and scholar who is currently visiting the US from Brazil. Her talk is simultaneously translated from Portuguese by Micol Seigel. In this feature, she talks about the findings of her interviews with women prisoners in Brazil. We hear examples …
This week, we share the first part of a talk by Dina Alves. Alves is a Brazilian lawyer with a doctorate in Anthropology, and has been an anchor in the feminist, antiracist legal scene in São Paulo since 2009. She is currently visiting the US, and recently gave this talk, generously translated by Micol Seigel, …
In our previous episodes, Sincere paints a picture of life in a women's prison. Today, they wrap up by talking about prison conditions- such as poor food, exploitative practices, and overly harsh punishments- such as losing visits as retaliation for saying “I love you” to another inmate. They also answer audience questions about a wide …
We start this episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances, compiled by Perilous Chronicle. You can find out more at perilouschronicle.com. This week, we share the second part of a conversation between Focus Initiatives' Jok Huerta and Sincere. Sincere spent 13 years in Indiana prisons, and now organizes in Indianapolis with other formerly …
This week, we share part of a conversation between Focus Initiatives’ Jok Huerta and Sincere. Sincere, who spent 13 years in Indiana prisons, and now organizes in Indianapolis with other formerly incarcerated people. Sincere speaks to the experience of arriving and getting settled into prison. She also movingly addresses the frequent abuses she witnessed and …
After the news, we hear from Daniel McGowan, former political prisoner and member of the Certain Days Collective. Daniel's been on the show before, talking to us about the Certain Days calendar- which is out now. Later on in the episode, we talk to an organizer with the group Both Sides of the Wall. Alabama …
We start off this week with a statement, released today, by Alabama Confined Citizens, speaking for people striking behind the walls of the Alabama prison system. We then speak with Elizabeth, who is one of many supporting the strike because they have an imprisoned loved one. In contrast to official narratives from the Governor and …
We start off this episode with our monthly round up of prison disturbances, as compiled by Perilous Chronicle. As we have covered, Alabama prisoners have been striking since September 26th. Prisoners at all 13 prisons in the Alabama department of corrections system went on labor strike, demanding improvement to conditions. We spoke with an inside …
This past week, we spoke to Swift Justice, who is an incarcerated organizer in Alabama. Thousands of Alabama prisoners began a strike last week to protest poor prison conditions across the state, where prisons are overcrowded, understaffed and notoriously dangerous. Today, Swift Justice speaks about the recent retaliation the strikers have faced. He updates us …
This week, we share the second part of a recorded discussion hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center. CLDC has been at the forefront of anti-repression legal work for decades now, working on many of the Green Scare cases, in which the FBI infamously hounded and smashed radical environmental organizing between 2000 and 2008. In …
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
