Episode 176 - Hope is a Discipline

Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by longtime guest host and prison-industrial complex abolitionist extraordinaire Mariame Kaba, pseudonymously known as @prisonculture. Mariame is the founder and director of Project NIA, an advocacy group focused on ending youth incarceration, and has co-founded a number of other organizations including Survived & Punished and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women. 

Mariame shares her insight into the current momentum behind abolitionist demands in the wake of the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, which she recently wrote about in a New York Times op-ed. Mariame and Kumars take stock of what the latest wave of Black Lives Matter protests have achieved thus far as well as state and corporate attempts at co-optation, assessing the sea change in discourse on policing in the United States and the criteria by which we should judge the various police reforms being proposed at all levels of government. Mariame rounds out the discussion with a reminder of the need for organizers not to lose focus on pandemic relief and other community support work, touching on her own involvement in getting Mutual Aid Projects 4 Youth off the ground. 

Follow Mariame on Twitter @prisonculture, and learn how you can support young organizers or apply for a grant yourself at map4youth.com.

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