A Joyful Decarcerate and Be Merry to Close Out the Year
After a grueling year in which we lost many beloved members in our community and faced significant political setbacks, we were deeply grateful to gather with our movement family for our third annual Decarcerate and Be Merry holiday party in December.
For the last three years, we’ve come together with the Abolitionist Law Center, Straight Ahead, Free the Ballot, and CADBI to wrap up the year with an evening of connection and celebration. We were lucky to have activist-chef Kurt Evans catering the event and DJ Anshi ensuring the vibes were immaculate.
The party was a wonderful opportunity to launch a new book of poetry from a longtime leader in our movement, Sandra Hill. Sandra is known for packing powerful wisdom into short poetic bursts that never fail to galvanize those of us around her. Last year, Amistad’s then Legislative Director, Sean Damon, had a vision to capture Sandra’s insights into a short book, and the Abolitionist Law Center agreed to partner with us at Amistad to publish it. Local artist Erik Ruin came on to create original artwork and oversaw design of the project from top to bottom. We are proud to have played a part in bringing this booklet to life. Stay tuned to learn how you can get your hands on a copy!
What a gift to close out 2024 with the people who give us hope that another world is possible. We know this because we witness the kind of generosity, hospitality, tenacious advocacy, and collective care in our movement that we hope to see on a large scale someday. We are more committed than ever to stand shoulder to shoulder with this movement family in the fight for freedom from state violence and freedom toward beloved community.
