AUTHOR POSITIONALITY STATEMENT

The conversation around incarceration is a conversation about human rights, enveloped in the impacts of global capitalism, violent domestic racism, and systemic oppression of marginalized groups. This conversation, while sensitive, should not be ignored for its lack of romantic solution. While I have never experienced incarceration, I am not afraid to address it. I understand that the integrity of my conversation will be limited by my lack of experience, age, and privilege as a student at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, but my proximity to the problem of mass incarceration of Black Americans is not distant. I have two immediate family members that were incarcerated, one for over half of their life. I have seen the impacts within my own home, within my community, and I see the grief that our people feel as we continue to lose brothers and sisters to prison. For this reason, and my deep connection and service to Nommo Newsmagazine, I felt compelled to write on the violence and injustice of imprisonment in plain text. I compiled research and archival materials from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023, and included a combination of radical literature, research, and personal sentiment to form the articles you read. I hand selected the poetry that is included in the zine, and I hope that the message rings clear in conjunction with my words.

I am fulfilling this project in fulfilment of my Capstone for my Bachelor’s of Public Affars at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.