jackie sumell

Through that presentation, two PS1 curators, Elena Ketelsen González and Jody Graf, said they wanted to work with me They embarked on this process of following wonder, curiosity, and learning; I often use this framework [to show that] the first ingredient in abolition is relationship. There’s no academia or theory that could ever replace the relationships that you build. The possibility of existing in a landscape without prisons is narrowed or impossible if you’re not actually building trust amongst community, and I think that PS1 really did that. They said, “Let’s spend 2 ½ years building, trusting, learning from each other, and jackie, who do you want to work with?” I was already working with the Lower East Side Girls Club and Kelly Webb; they had a Solitary Garden on their rooftop, and it was a very natural and sustainable fit for a massive institution like PS1. Elena was the one who asked, “How can we continue to grow this relationship?” That’s how Growing Abolition became Freedom to Grow. […] You know, I have been so busy that I haven’t had enough time to pause and reflect on how fucking remarkable it was. We transformed the entire courtyard, this brutalist architecture that looks like a prison yard, into a garden – and it was spectacular.

GM: In 2022, you published The Abolitionist’s Field Guide, which is an interactive workbook that emphasizes abolitionism through the lived experience of plants. What inspired you to create this book, and what do you hope its audience takes from it?

js: The book was made during the height of the COVID pandemic lockdown. It was a really exciting venture, to make a book that brought together my very isolated time in the garden and the lived experience of twenty years of prison abolition. My hope was to be able to share [moments such as] the way that the plants are talking to me, and create different points of access for folks who are abolition curious I really struggle with literacy, I’m dyslexic, and my reading comprehension has always been really low, but I’m hyper vigilant, intelligent, and my intuition is on point. There are all of these different ways of learning that the garden really upholds, and there’s a dominant academic language around abolition. I just don’t know if that’s for everyone, because I know it wasn’t for me I needed to live it, work it, and be in proximity to Herman and Albert in order to understand The Abolitionist’s Field Guide was really a part of providing more ways of inspiring wonder and curiosity, and accessing an abolitionist lifestyle and lens – not as a destination, but as a practice. Sometimes when I lecture, enough people will say, “I understand abolition for non-violent offenses.” But what happens when you insert the most hyperbolic, intense, unbelievable harm? I generally reflect that question back to folks by asking, “Was there anything you’re particularly good at?” Is there anything you’re good at, Adrianne?

GM: I’m very good at providing a platform for people to tell their own stories, whether that’s through GIRLS, exhibitions, or programming. To this day, one of my favorite companies is American Girl. I still have my American Girl doll and so many of the books – the Historical Character series, History Mysteries, and Girls of Many Lands series. Those were great ways for me to learn history and how gender roles evolved and changed over time What I love about that platform is that it tells all these stories from diverse girls I was always very engrossed in the books and learning in that way, so I cite AG as one of my sources in learning how to tell stories.

js: That’s beautiful! That illustrates where I’m going with this – you didn’t start off as a great storyteller. You had a curiosity, right? You followed it, and whether or not you were conscious of it, you were building your skill, reading, studying, and coming back to it again and again. Abolition is like that. You don’t necessarily start out with the most hyperbolic, violent offense or harm that someone inevitably will cause and has caused. You start off with the microaggressions, micro-harms, and then come back to it again and again, you practice, until you have a comprehensive way of responding to harm without causing more.

GM: Many of your projects embrace the concept of art in the public sphere – do you believe that society is receptive to public art, or are they still drawn to the institution?

js: Both the status quo and the institution relies on one another because the institution has made it such. Right? The institution, which is very much capitalist driven and rooted in practices of white supremacy, has said that they will determine what is valuable and what is art. They make those determinations based on how they can create more capital for themselves The arts are considered extra, disposable, or not necessarily important. When an institution says an object is important, it’s almost like The Emperor’s New Clothes. My artist homies are my deepest and most treasured homies. I am so grateful for all the ways I can see, feel, and experience the world with the lenses of liberation and freedom – because of the artists in my life. I’m not tethered to what bell hooks called “imperialist white supremacist capitalist hetero patriarchy.” js: The Abolitionist Apothecary is in a space right now called The John Thompson Legacy Center. Part of the big picture ways we’re dreaming of are different collaborations and activations in this building in order to create a sustainable abolitionist diversion program. This summer, I’ll be working with Mel Chin to create a gathering surrounding social practice, and in the fall, I’m working with Tulane University’s Small Center to think about a design project at the Legacy Center. I’m also working with Rice and Colgate University about ways of activating plants and growing; we’ll be hosting the next iteration of the show that was at PS1 at Colgate. But I will say that in really listening to where I am in time and space, and making it to 50 this year – I don’t want to do this work forever but I promised to leave it in a space where it can sustain itself Big picture, I’m organizing the next five or ten years of my life around leaving this work in a place where people can come in and continue it. I am thinking about ways I can co-create through social practice, relationships, and an abolitionist lens. At some point I want to be able to step away, move a little bit slower and with a little less intensity.

GM: What are you currently working on in your practice?