OUR WORK
THEORY OF CHANGE
June Jordan taught us that language is political. The oppressors have weaponized narrative against marginalized communities for centuries to justify colonialism, land theft, slavery, incarceration, and unjustified murder. These harmful narratives are directly connected to over-policing, incarceration, the consistent murder of black bodies, and they drive policy decisions. Somatic therapist and author of My Grandmother's Hands, Resma, informed us that, “Trauma is also a wordless story our body tells itself about what is safe and what is a threat.” These narratives live in black and white bodies and are expressed in our actions. When white bodies feel unsafe they incarcerate and kill black bodies. When black bodies feel unsafe they primarily harm other black bodies. It’s imperative that we create new stories, retrieve our ancient stories, tell the truth about the wholeness that sits at core, and dismantle systems of oppression so that we can live, thrive, and exist in our full dignity.
ART & CULTURE
At Some Things Must Be Heard: Spitting & Politicking, art and culture are not accessories to the work. They are the foundation. Abolition is our North Star and we get there through art and organizing.
We see art as a strategy, a bridge, and an activator. It is how people make meaning of their conditions, reclaim their narratives, shift public perception, escape isolation, and imagine beyond the constraints of oppressive systems. Through art, systems-impacted and formerly incarcerated people are not reduced to our experiences. We become authors of new realities, shaping culture and policy, ultimately shifting consciousness in real time.
Art transcends time, class, gender, and religion, It carries memory, lineage, and resistance across generations. It allows us to tap into ancestral knowledge while building new futures rooted in wholeness, justice, and liberation. This is not symbolic. it is practical, revolutionary, and real. Cultural work moves people in ways policy alone cannot. It builds emotional connection, deepens political understanding, and mobilizes communities toward action.
We curate transformative experiences that inspire action within ourselves and across communities by developing a base of systems-impacted artists and cultural organizers committed to using art to as tool.
SPIRITUALITY
& SOMATICS
Healing, Spirituality, and Somatic's are integral because policy alone will not save us. We practice regulation, mind-body coherence, union with nature, awareness, and nonviolence in moments of tension, strengthening nervous systems shaped by trauma. Through spirituality, faith, and tradition, we reclaim sacredness and selfhood. We invite the ancestors, spirit, and sound into our organizing spaces, front-line actions, cultural gatherings, healing circles, workshops, trainings, and retreats because we know that we do not do this work alone. We have a rich cultural history filled with resilience and revolution at our back.
Transformed people, Transform Systems. We do the inner work so that we don't re-create the same systems that we work tirelessly to destroy. We thank Cara Page and Erica Woodland for Healing Justice Lineages, Malidoma Patrice Somé and Sobonfo Somé for The Healing Wisdom of Africa & The Spirit of Intimacy, Resma for My Grandmothers Hands. We also thank The Freedom Community Center and The Mass Liberation Network for their teachings, trainings, and guidance.
This is our lineage. This is what it takes to build a new world and be in right relationship with the land, ourselves, and each other.
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POLI-ED ADVOCACY REVOLUTION
Our advocacy, political education, and campaign work live at the intersection of Black Radical Tradition, Abolition, The Black Arts Movement, and lived experience. We are center on those who have survived incarceration and are now shaping the path forward. Political Education and training is not just for mobilization; it is a return to lineage, grounding us in the freedom struggles that came before us and the futures we are building now.
We move in the tradition of Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Assata Shakur, refusing the divide between artist and organizer because our people have always been both. Through cultural organizing, we study criminalization, exploited labor, and systems designed to disappear us, while building the strategy to dismantle them.
We work in coalition. Our campaign #NoMoreJailDeaths carry demands to decarcerate, divert, and dignify. We are fighting to shrink cages while restoring humanity to those inside them. We build leaders who build leaders, hold politicized healing spaces, engage stakeholders, and use art to sharpen narrative and move grassroots power. We bring the artistic strategy and we organize from the ground up, where those most impacted lead, create, and transform.