BUILDING AN ABOLITIONIST DETROIT (2023)
bridge the existing abolitionist experiments in Detroit,
lean towards the emotional layers of transformation,
investigate art’s potential for bringing our whole selves together,
unleash our imagination towards un-named futures.
supported by the Detroit Justice Center
from the arrangement of time, to construction and decoration of the space, from prioritization of conversations over food, to a true ability to take breaks, the workshops played with the senses of gatherings as what changes our collective processes.
you can read more on our practice here.
Leading Question: How can art support freedom dreaming for abolitionist worlds we are to create - within a living practice - together?
Process: As an extension of Lauren’s practice titled “Making Room for Abolition,” participants were invited to enter into distinct abolitionist futures. Working with contextual constraints and abolitionist themes, each group created an object that could exist in their future homes.
Theoratical Dimension: If abolition is a relational practice, intimate spaces we occupy can offer a framework to explore quotidian and embodied entrywas to change. And occupying these imagined spaces together can allow us to touch and shape abolitionist futures.
Opening & Closing Rituals: HealingbyChoice!; David Pitawanakwat
Photography: Radical Play
Space: We the People, Michigan
Photography: Radical Play
Space: We the People, Michigan
II. Abolition within Our Selves: Fear of Uncertainty, Practices of Hope
Leading Question: How do we navigate the fear and discomfort that accompanies relinquishing normalized ways of being, and orienting our lives into abolition?
Process: The TETRA created an ancestral ritual to explore embodied reflections of fear. They invited the participants towards the courage our spirit carries to face the loss, the surrender change entails. Accountability for Dearborn then led small group discussions on how we could support one another towards commiting to abolition.
Theoratical Dimension: We live in a world order that promises us a fantasy of control and stability. Our senses of self and directions for living are regimented. Facing the discomfort and fear of change is vital for moving beyond our patterns, for hearing our inner voice, and experimenting with abolitionist possibilities.
Opening & Closing Rituals: HealingbyChoice!
Center piece: Alexandria Virgnia Martin
Photography: Radical PlaySpace: We the People, Michigan
III. Abolition within Our Relationships: Growing with Conflict, Weaving Trust
Leading Question: How do we shed righteousness and grow relationships from a root of accountability?
Process: Curtis created a pod-mapping process for when we have harmed someone. In layers, participants explored what they would have needed to heal themselves, grow where they were not showing up as their best selves, and be in accountability with community. In closing, Sicily brought us together into a vibrous human web.
Theoratical Dimension: It is difficult to acknowledge that we harmed someone! There is shame of failure, fear of being isolated, discomfort of hard conversations. Abolition reminds that we are growing, changing beings. Accountability is a practice that must be within the fabric of our relationships, with prioritization of trust to bare our differences.
Opening & Closing Rituals: HealingbyChoice!
Photography: Radical Play
Space: Oakland Avenue Urban Farm
Photography: Radical Play
Space: Oakland Avenue Urban Farm
IV: Mapping Abolition: Communal Sufficiency in Present Tense
Leading Question: How do we articulate and embark on communal sufficiency as a strategic orientation of world-building?
Process: Adrienne and practitioners at FFG offered Communal Sufficiency as a framework to guide our present solidarity work and future visions. As a building block, participants identified their needs and offerings towards enacting communal sufficiency. Halima then walked us into collage-maping the various resources in Detroit that can web together an abolitionist future.
Theoratical Dimension: Communal Sufficiency is a non-dogmatic approach that begins from the local context, its histories and opportunities, and highlights each individual’s role in enacting abolitionist futures. In this practice, future is a function of our choices in the present, in an ongoing conversation with memory.
Opening & Closing Rituals: HealingbyChoice!
Food & Stories: Indigo Culinary
Photography: Radical Play
Space: Feedom Freedom Growers
Accountability for Dearborn
Afrofuture Youth
Allied Media Project
ANSWER Detroit
Avalon Healing Center
Black to the Land
Boggs Center
Center for Community-Based Enterprise
DBCFSN
Detroit Community Fridge
Detroit Community Technology Project
Detroit Community Wealth Fund
Detroit Disability Power
Detroit Eviction Defense
Detroit Free Store
Detroit Justice Center
Detroit Safety Team
Detroit Sound Conservancy
Feedom Freedom Growers
Garage Cultural
Hamtramck Mutual Aid
Healing by Choice!
Joy Project
Matter Fruit
Oakland Avenue Urban Farm
People in Education
Prism
Sanctuary Farms
Sidewalk Detroit
Study & Struggle
Taproot Sanctuary
The STOKE Collective
The TETRA
Unity in Our Community Timebank
We the People Michigan
Check back here to access (for free!) our compiled curriculum from the workshop series.