ABOLITION
EVERYDAY SH!T: THE PILOT ISSUE
Cover Image: Heading to School, Karim Brown
ON DIRECTION:
For the pilot issue of the renewed Abolition Journal, we invited contributors to explore the everyday experiences that come along with trying to live out our politics: the daily victories and errands, reflections and runarounds, gestures and drama, habits and heartbreaks, setbacks and surrenders, excuses and evasions, breakdowns and breakthroughs.
This humble proof of concept took shape with the hands and hearts of many. We went from a belief that hosting seven pieces will do, to accepting and publishing 20+ offerings. All the while, we needed to everyday struggle with each other within the Working Group to find, no, invent structure, practice, care, and direction for the Journal. Structure, practice, care, and direction that would deepen existing movement knowledges and/both invite new audiences to irresistibly see themselves mirrored within this work.
Whole time, we won’t know if we got it right until you all read these pages. Or we can keep it more thurl than that: we won’t know if the work works until our liberation movements advance and endure. We ain’t just doing all this for the appreciation of good sentences. This Abolition Journal pilot issue is but a departure for a whole wide world of folks, grounded from so-called Philadelphia (Occupied Lenapehoking), seeking to arrive at the precipice of global transformation. Our words remain insufficient when bold actions are required.
Eduardo Galeano reminds us that utopia is on the horizon and on these pages, we simply are rehearsing our wins, doing our dance, performing our best kinda Philly two-step. Take this long walk with us. Join this electric slide. The point of facing EVERYDAY SH!T is this: to keep on a move.
Authored by Christopher R. Rogers, Project Lead of the Abolition Journal Working Group
ON POETRY:
The poems in this pilot issue of Abolition Journal take flight. They launch, observe, dive, and give us a reason to notice: How did we get here? Where are we going? When did we get wings? These poems are equal parts invitations to witness and calls to action. To resist and love. To reimagine and wrestle with what is difficult to sit with. In his 1963 speech “The Moral Responsibility of the Artist” delivered at the University of Chicago, James Baldwin said “An artist is someone who helps you see reality again.”. These poems are so specific to the vision of these poets that the reader will have to step out of their seeing in the name of addition. To make room for altering perceptions. To archive truths however stark and heartbreaking. To offer a word or a phrase for us to: hold, remember, acknowledge, and reconsider.
Authored by Gabriel Ramirez, Poetry Lead of the Abolition Journal Working Group
THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN PRODUCED BY THE ABOLITION JOURNAL WORKING GROUP:
- Kiian Dawn, Editorial Lead
- Andrés González-Bonillas
- TJ Holloway
- Sterling Johnson
- Gabriel Ramirez, Poetry Lead
- Christopher R. Rogers, Project Lead
- Farwa Zaidi