Abolition Geographies

Abolition Ecologies

With Nik Heynen, I organized a double session at the 2018 AAGs in New Orleans on "Abolition Ecologies." In recent work, Heynen has called for abolition ecologies that theorize "against and about the continued existence of white supremacist logics that continue to produce uneven racial development within land and property relations. How can abolitionist ideals inform contemporary political ecological struggles around air quality, soil quality, water pollution, inadequate shelter, food insecurity and hunger that continue to ravage communities of color and poor communities?" Our goal is to work through grounded practices that highlight the ways that the daily work of struggle signals abolition dreams. We are working away at putting together a special issue for Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography....

These are the contributions online:

Heynen, N and M. Ybarra (in press) "On abolition ecologies and making freedom as a place." Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
Heynen, N (in press) “A plantation can be a commons”: Re-Earthing Sapelo Island through Abolition Ecology. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography doi:10.1111/anti.12631
Mei-Singh, L (in press) Accompaniment Through Carceral Geographies: Abolitionist Research Partnerships with Indigenous Communities. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12589
Pellow, DN (in press) Struggles for Environmental Justice in Prisons and Jails. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12569
Ranganathan, M and Bratman, E (in press) From Urban Resilience to Abolitionist Climate Justice in Washington, DC. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12555
Ybarra, M (in press) "Site Fight! Towards the abolition of immigrant detention on Tacoma’s Tar Pits (and everywhere else)”. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography

A Hunger Strikers Handbook

With Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDCR), I documented immigrant-led resistance against ICE and GEO Group at a privately owned and operated immigrant detention facility. The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. On Friday, March 7, 2014, over one thousand people held in the NWDC fought back against an unjust system by putting their bodies on the line: a hunger strike. The strike continued for 56 days and spread to other detention centers across the USA.

With an Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Grant, we wrote A Hunger Strikers Handbook and released an 11-minute documentary short: Hunger Strikes: A Call to End Immigrant Detention. These works both celebrate the organizing of detained immigrants and challenge those of us not detained to join in their work and act as accomplices in abolition.