What if our institutions were life-affirming, instead of death-making? This is the question at the heart of abolition, a political tradition that demands the end of prisons, as well as the end of the kind of world that could ever even have something as violent as a prison.
Content note: this talk will mention Black deaths in custody, policy brutality, grief and mention of torture. These are told from the lived experience of our guest and how this shapes their response to the conversation. In some instances this is described in detail to shed truth, so we ask that you go gently and decide when the time is right for you to listen in.
We revisit a poignant conversation from 2023, with Latoya Aroha Rule - activist and writer working to ban the use of spithoods in this country who's work explores all this; galvanising as plans were unveiled to re-introduce them last month; a damning and archaic Their journey towards this has been deeply rooted in grief and love as well as the power of creative protests - with words ringing true even in this moment.
This piece was produced by Samantha Haran and hosted by Shareeka Helaluddin in 2023; re-edited and introduced by Mateo Baskaran