Welcome to the Season 2 Finale!

Reproductive justice has always been the foundation of upEND’s work to abolish the family policing system. Both movements focus on bodily autonomy and our human right to keep ourselves and our children safe from oppressive systems.

That’s why we wanted to speak with Ash Williams, a Black trans abortion doula, storyteller, community organizer, and public intellectual from Fayetteville, Nc.

We talk about gender affirming care, abortion doula trainings, and how abolitionist work means providing support and care to one another outside of the system.

Episode Notes:

• Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donate

• Episode Transcript

• Watch Ash’s panel at upEND’s 2023 Convening.

• Learn more about the Carolina Abortion Fund.

• Ash discusses the death of a child in North Carolina, which is a reproductive justice issue.

• Learn more about the Mountain Area Abortion Doula Collective.

• Ash recommends learning about organizations like We Testify.

• Follow Ash Williams on Instagram, @ashwilliamsclt.

The foster system has more than double the representation of LGBTQ youth than the general population. And LGBTQ youth of color have significantly greater odds of being in the foster system compared to white LGBTQ youth. When marginalized identities intersect across race, gender, and sexuality, we see the harms of the family policing system become compounded.

As a young person, our guest experienced the these systems of oppression and has valuable insights that can help us understand beyond the statistics.

Content Warning:

This episode features conversations around child sexual abuse.

About Our Guest:

Nalo Zidan is a philosopher, accountability strategist and masculinity scholar who seeks to challenge the landscapes of how we engage gender, community and justice. From intentional, thought-provoking content to training community organizations, Nalo continues to invite us all to consider implementing community concepts above policing and disposal. Nalo’s next project, The Adult Preschool, seeks to imagine necessary lessons to connect adult experiences with how to practice community together. This virtual project will offer lessons we deserved to learn as young people; lessons that can change how we see the world and each other.

Episode Notes:

• Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donate

• Episode Transcript

• Follow @nalodarling on Instagram.

• On the Bad People Podcast, Nalo shares lessons on the complexities of being, the magic of community praxis, and the transformative power of accountability.

Schools have become sites of policing and surveillance that mirror the criminal legal system. To address this, we need to understand what our guest calls the “school-to-prison nexus,” the intersecting web of racist, carceral systems that criminalize our youth.

We discuss the history of organizing against the school-to-prison pipeline and how the call for “Counselors Not Cops” needs an abolitionist framework to succeed. We also highlight important wins from decades-long fights like the recent vote to end the school resource office (SRO) program in Chicago Public Schools.

Episode Guest:

Erica Meiners is a writer, educator and organizer. Their recent books include For the Children? Protecting Innocence in a Carceral State, a co-edited anthology The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Towards Freedom, and the co-authored *Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm, Ending State Violence* as well as 2022’s Abolition. Feminism. Now. Most importantly, Erica has collaboratively started and works alongside others in a range of ongoing mobilizations for liberation, particularly movements that involve access to free public education for all, including people during and after incarceration, and other queer abolitionist struggles. They are a member of Critical Resistance, the Illinois Death in Custody Project, the Prison+Neighborhood Arts and Education Project, and the Education for Liberation Network. Erica is also a sci-fi fan, an avid runner, and a lover of bees and cats.

Episode Notes:

• Transcript: upendmovement.org/podcast/episode-205/
• Support the work of upEND: upendmovement.org/donate
• To understand the difference between reforms and abolitionist steps to end family policing, explore our framework tool at upendmovement.org/framework
• We mention the Repeal CAPTA episode of The upEND Podcast. Learn more about the efforts to repeal the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act at repealcapta.org
• Erica encourages people to check out the work of organizations like Critical Resistance, Dream Defenders, Movement for Family Power, and the blog Black on Both Sides.