Table of Contents
02
Introduction: Our Imagination is our Greatest Tool
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I'm Trying to Think of a World by Alise Gilbert, Zoe Chambers, and Markasa Tucker
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#Keepalefree by JEANETTE MARTIN
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A World With Police by Reginald Johnson
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Defund Cartoon by Robert Smith
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Defund Police Embroidery by Alyssa Delloro
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The freest I have ever been... by Devin Anderson
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Change by Valeria Cerda
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Fruits of a Poisonous Tree by Bradley Sewell #409973, Wapun Correctional Institution
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But He didn’t change My Skin by Rebecca Burrell
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Fear vs. Dreamers by Camila iuscely
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
OUR IMAGINATION IS OUR GREATEST TOOL Police and policing fill our communities. They are in stores, hospitals, libraries, parks, and protests. That is the world we live in but it doesn’t have to be. That is why we launched our campaign in June of 2019 because we can build a world beyond police. This zine was inspired by a prompt in the Invisible No More Study guide. Imagine yourself free: What would it look like? What do you hear? How would it feel? This zine features voices in our communities ranging a couple of generations casting bold vision on what is possible when we defund the police. Don’t not let the world we are living in today cast any doubts on the world we can build tomorrow. - Devin Anderson, African American Roundtable Lead Organizer
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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I'm tryna think of a world A world without cops Will there be more crime? Or will the crime just stop? Would we get to live? Or would we still be shot? That's something I don't know, but l think of it alot A world without police? I don't know what l would see I don't know what we will be good, bad or in between It's kind of hard to think of everything that would change Would more people walk down the street joyfully? Or would vigilantes roam the streets thinking they are the police again? Or would the world be more refreshing? Deep cultural learnings will be taught Delicious fruits and vegetables would never run out Black kids will play freely Shooting hoops, playing cans, double dutching, and playing in the sand Mommas, daddys, aunties, and uncles vibrantly producing ideas like no other Young leaders come together squashing menial disputes, while creating spaces for lil Lele and Juju Elders, babas, G-Moms, and grannies hosting Freedom Schools from their porches, while the trees and plants are dancing Joyful noises fill the blocks, churches, schools, and farms because, we have finally made it Freedom for all! Yes, this is a world without policing
Co-Written by: Alise Gilbert, Zoe Chambers, and Markasa Tucker
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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A world without police is like a world without a gang. power and evil running through the veins of the un-united states of america I know there is some good in this evil how we suppose to be free if there is no equality involved why are we scared of the ones that suppose to protect that's why my brother has arms so the smith will westin in his lap having a world without police smells like cherry blossoms to me walking down the street without no anxiety scared of the fact that the police is racial profiling me and getting shot seven time and and putting presser on my neck Dieing over the fact that they got the wrong person telling them I CAN’T BREATH I CAN’T BREATH really means to them that I lying to you or trying to run away just let me talk i’m a person not animal I can tell who it is if you stop kill me A whole without police sounds quiet and free a world without police or violents is where I want to be free while kids playing in the front yard laughing with joy no worries that my lil cousin will get shot playing with his toy gun now we can be free from this world that wants to kill me now we can be free from this agony IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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The freest I have ever been is when I am reading Black feminist writers. Their straightforward truth telling and ability to envision a world so radically different than the world we are living in is breathtaking. Their words create images of the world we are building while simultaneously being a call to action. Toni Cade Bamara said “The job of the writer is to make revolution irresistible” Black writers like Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Combahee River Collective, and Carlene Carthures words were the catalyst for me to join the fight for Black Liberation. The worlds they write about feel free although the world we live in is built on misogynoir, which describes that specific intersection of oppression Black womxn face. That is what makes their work so freeing, because with each word they are birthing the world we need to create.So when Lucile Clifton writes “Come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed” again she is acknowledging this world is fucked up but painting the picture of the most beautiful celebration because she still has breath. I hear Assata Shakur chanting with conviction, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains,” leaving no doubt that we will win a world free of all the isms. When I envision Audre Lorde living “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare," I am joining her with feet up and a glass of Rosé. And when the Combahee River Collective is theorizing,"If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free, since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression." I am thinking of ways to show up for Black Womxn because I know our stories are tied together.Our freedom is not going to come up creating the same structures with Black people instead of white people. Our freedom is not going to come from reforms on the margins or respectability. Rather it comes from radical imagination. Black Feminists have expanded my imagination and I encourage you to engage with their work to expand your.
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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Fruits of a Poisonous Tree by Bradley Sewell #409973, Wapun Correctional Institution The average citizen may not be aware that our Founding Fathers legally mandated slavery when framing our precious U.S. Constitution; “The migration and IMPORTATION of such persons… Shall not be prohibited…” (Article I., Section 9). (Emphasis added) And, by ratification of the same, they intended to forbid the slaves to escape, deny him refuge in ANY state, and completely strip her of any ride or claim to freedom; “No person held in service or labor in one state… Escaping to another, shall... be discharged from such service or labor, BUT SHALL BE DELIVERED UP ON CLAIM OF THE PARTY TO WHOM SUCH SERVICE OR LABOR MAY BE DUE.” (Article IV, Section 2). (Emphasis added) In the event a terrified human being were to escape his tormentors and torturers, the Founding Fathers were very certain and clear in their demand that she is not to be set free, but is to be “delivered up,” or re-captured and returned to her rightful owner. Now the question is, delivered up by whom? The Founding Fathers were careful to address that issue as well: “The Congress shall have power… To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia… [and] to provide for CALLING FORTH THE MILITIA TO EXECUTE THE LAWS OF THE UNION.” (Article I., Section 8). (Emphasis added). The right to own another human being was a bona fide Constitutional right in America, just as a Right to Free Speech and the Right to Vote are today. Slavery was very much the Law and Order of the Union, thus, it was subject to “execution” and enforcement by the Congress with power to call forth the .
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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militia to do so. Shortly after the ratification of our national Constitution, and in the backdrop of a new nation rocked by slave revolt, escapes, and rebellions, the nation’s very first and most infamous law enforcement agency was formed: The U.S. Marshals Service The U.S. Marshals Service was charged with carrying out federal law enforcement activities, including responding to slave revolts and rebellions, and apprehending federal fugitives, or, better said, escaped slaves. This federal law enforcement agency hunted down African men, women, and children like animals; men, women and children who only sought to be free of their captors. The Marshals used vicious dogs to track and chase them down, much in the same manner as law enforcement does today. And once captured, the men, women, and children were often subjected to beatings, torture, and summary judgment in the form of murder, without benefit of a trial; again, much in the same manner as today. Because the fugitive slave was the rightful property of an American citizen, law enforcement had to explain to the owner why his property was destroyed, and the reasons ranged from “he had a weapon,“ to “he was crazed,” or “he had malice in his eyes.” The justifications were endless; again much in the same manner as they are today. For Black people in America, since its inception, law enforcement by definition has been a hostile institution (and some would argue, a terrorist institution). Fresh off the boat, Black people were subjected to myriad Slave Laws in America, which by law, were enforced by law-enforcement institutions and organizations. Law enforcement responded to slave rebellions and threats of revolts with force, acting in the interest of the slave owner as his security and often, as his personal executioner. Even as slavery was put into a new light and punishable only for a crime, unjust laws were quickly enumerated and executed by law enforcement, which effectively returned the emancipated slaves to her previous condition of involuntary (forced) Servitude. And this “force,” as well as the threat of force, was more often than America would admit hastily provided by law enforcement, again, much in the same way it is today.
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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A world without police is the only path to true freedom for Black people in America. At every turn in American history, the police have violently responded with beatings, vicious dogs, clubs, chemical agents, or bullets whenever Black people start to secure those rights and liberties we as a nation hold to be “true” and “self-evident.” I imagine an America where I can jog in any neighborhood without being chased by the police; where I can play basketball with a group of friends without the police interrupting our game to “run a check” on everyone’s name; where I can go to Mayfair Mall or Bayshore, or Brookfield Square Mall, without being stopped and told “You don’t belong here.” I imagine a world where I can simply walk down the street without having to look over my shoulder every three minutes for the police; a world where I do not have to be alert and ready to bolt like a gazelle grazing in the wild, on the watch for any sight, sound, or smell of the predatory hyena. This state of living in constant anxiety is a perpetual condition in America. My son is only 16 years old and he has the same “natural, inborn, or maybe even inherited” fear and anxiety in relation to law enforcement. That’s what hurts me the most. Law enforcement’s relations with Black people in America is irrefutably deeply rooted in the rotten soil of racism, slavery, and terror. The recent police brutality the world is witness to has been the black experience for hundreds of years. “A tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33) What mother (nation) would force-feed her children fruit from a poisonous tree? Unless Black Lives Truly Don’t Matter, we need to defund, dismantle, and overhaul law enforcement to “Create a More Perfect Union.”
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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But He didn’t change My Skin He didn’t change my skin He gave me a heart of Gold And a mind that constantly grows I can prove a hypothesis in a science thesis And exegete a text of old But He still didn’t change my skin. He gave me eyes that can see what’s in front of me Lessons from the past And future things to be, But He still didn’t change my skin. He enhanced the virtues in me Discipline, Patience, Integrity. But He still didn’t change my skin. He gave me the ability To love those who hate me Desire to be me but can’t be And even those who tried to break me But He still didn’t change my skin. I asked God to perfect me But before you ever met me You had a preconceived notion that I was expendable or that I could only do what you let me. You never cared to take the time to know me. You thought that I only knew what you told And when my Father began to perfect me He only touched the old me. But He still didn’t change my skin. So I still suffer even after this grand renovation bc of the faulty foundation absent my Father in this nation. And you miss out on the wealthiness of The Jewels that are hidden within because the only part of me that you see is the color of my skin. Lord why didn’t you change the most hated thing they see? “Because I made you to look like suffer with & love Just like me. And I will never my skin.”
IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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IMAGINE YOURSELF FREE ZINE
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