Celebrating the Holidays with Our Movement at Decarcerate and Be Merry
“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.” - Bell Hooks
In the struggle to win second chances we cannot underestimate the powerful role of joy. Joy brings us together. Joy helps fuel us for the journey ahead. Joy provides relief and balance from all the serious and heavy moments the struggle brings to us.
On Saturday, December 17th, our movement family gathered to celebrate the holidays with each other. The party was organized by Amistad Movement Power, Amistad Law Project, Abolitionist Law Center, Straight Ahead, Free The Ballot and our coordinating body Decarcerate Movement Core in collaboration with Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration. This gathering built off of a successful Summer gathering that our family of organizations organized together which brought family members of people incarcerated in PA prisons, formerly incarcerated people and their supporters together to build connection and momentum.
In the past year we've been through a lot. We stopped a far right movement from taking power in PA and beat back politicians who were trying to resurrect 'tough on crime' politics. In this moment it was important to get together to celebrate the holidays and to take stock of how far we've come as well as the road ahead.
In the next year, we have a lot ahead us. We'll engage with elections in 2023 that will determine the next mayor and city council of Philadelphia. We'll fight to win second chances for the many through passing second chance legislation at the state level. We'll build the movement to reunite families and get our communities the resources they need to be safe and whole. Sign up below and help us build the movement to win the changes we need.
