Libsyn Directory

Certain Days

Release Date: 11/28/2023

For a Livable Future: Building Movements to Stop War & Save the Planet

Beyond Prisons

Welcome to episode three of “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” For listeners new to Beyond Prisons or our collaboration with Critical Resistance, this is a new, regular series that premiered in September of 2023. Hosted by members of Critical Resistance’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, “Over the Wall” discusses articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist. This special episode focuses on both issues of the newspaper that Critical Resistance (CR) published in 2024:...

Lessons from the Garden: We Don't Have to Learn Through Suffering feat. Anya Tanyavutti

Beyond Prisons

For this episode Kim sat down with long-time educator and organizer, Anya Tanyavutti for a conversation about her contribution titled “Shelter and Shower Toward Abolition: A Reflection on Collective Care, Reproductive Justice, and Educational Justice.” Anya Tanyavutti has 25 years of experience working in the fields of education and nonprofit leadership. She earned her Bachelor's in Elementary Education and Masters in Socio-Cultural Studies and Educational Thought, from Western Michigan University. Anya is a trained birthworker and a 3 time alum of the Jade T. Perry...

The Kansas City Defender feat. Ryan Sorrell

Beyond Prisons

Kim sits down with Ryan Sorrell, founder of the Kansas City Defender, for a conversation about what motivated him to start a media organization, his early days as a content creator covering community and cultural events with his childhood friend and collaborator, and the influences of the radical Black press had on shaping his thinking and approach to journalism as a tool for liberation. Ryan is an organizer, media worker and artist. In 2021, he founded The Kansas City Defender, a Black-led abolitionist news platform and power-building organization rooted in the tradition of the radical...

Lessons from the Garden: Some Dad Shit feat. Dylan Rodriguez

Beyond Prisons

Dylan Rodriguez joins Kim for a conversation about respecting his children’s autonomous voice, why he named his Fantasy Football team “Uncle Dylan Never Lies,” and what that has to do with abolitionist parenting. Dylan shares why he believes that caregivers and parents must take children's questions of ‘why?’ seriously, and how it is possible to treat why as a radical question that is fundamental to any aspirational abolitionist parenting praxis. They close by talking about the ways that the state deploys technologies of warfare against incarcerated people and their families, and the...

Free the Mississippi Five feat. Garrett Felber

Beyond Prisons

Garrett Felber joins Kim for a conversation about . The #MS5 are five women in Mississippi sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in the 1980s and 1990s. They have been incarcerated over 175 years and denied parole 47 times. Lisa Crevitt, Anita Krecic, Loretta Pierre, Linda Ross, and Evelyn Smith, collectively known as the Mississippi Five, are now between 59 and 82 years old. Despite their achievements, personal growth, the loss of loved ones outside, and even recantations of key witnesses, they continue to be denied parole irrespective of their actions. It is time to #FreetheFive!...

Lessons From The Garden: Happiness Is Not A Good Goal feat. Sarah Tyson

Beyond Prisons

Sarah Tyson joins Kim for a spirited conversation about her suspicions about happiness and the intellectual underpinnings that inform why happiness is not a worthy goal in general, but specifically for her children. Sarah and Kim talk about how the work of Sarah Ahmed helps us to understand why the archetype of the killjoy is an important abolitionist parenting framework, and why we can’t separate the material conditions under which we are forced to exist from our parenting practice. This is the second installment of our new series, Lessons From The Garden, where Kim will be...

Lessons From The Garden: Practicing Vulnerability feat. Susana Victoria Parras & Alejandro Villalpando

Beyond Prisons

Susana Victoria Parras & Alejandro Villalpando join Kim to discuss how, through a continued practice of communal study, they are able to renew their commitment to each other, their child, and to their community in ways that are generative and don’t engage in disposability politics or pathologizing their elders and ancestors. This wonderful episode is the first installment of our new series, Lessons From The Garden, where Kim will be interviewing contributors to the forthcoming anthology that she co-edited with Maya Schenwar titled . You can pre-order this volume now from Haymarket or...

Introducing: Lessons From The Garden

Beyond Prisons

Beyond Prisons is excited to announce the launch of a special new series titled ‘Lessons from the Garden,’ where Kim Wilson will be interviewing contributors to the forthcoming anthology that she co-edited with Maya Schenwar, . We Grow The World Together will be out on November 19, 2024 from Haymarket Books, and is wherever you buy books. The series is an opportunity to engage in further conversation with brilliant organizers, writers, and thinkers about their work, and how they practice abolitionist parenting and caregiving in their daily lives. Additionally, we will draw on...

Making Movement Media feat. Chuck Modiano

Beyond Prisons

Kim is joined by long-time independent journalist Chuck Modiano for a conversation about movement media making, the importance of media literacy, and the intersection of sports and politics. Kim and Chuck begin by talking about what motivated him to start covering protests. He opens up about how he was impacted by the killing of Trayvon Martin, and how that tragedy reignited athlete activism in the United States. Chuck also offers us a historical perspective on the significance of sports activism dating back to the 1920s and through to today. They discuss how corporate media...

Snuffing Out Revolution: Control Units & Resistance

Beyond Prisons

Welcome to episode two of “Over the Wall: The Abolitionist Hour with Critical Resistance.” For listeners new to Beyond Prisons or our collaboration with Critical Resistance, this is a new, regular series that premiered in September of 2023. Hosted by members of ’s The Abolitionist Editorial Collective, discusses articles and key interventions made by Critical Resistance’s cross-wall, bilingual newspaper, . This episode—dedicated to Critical Resistance co-founder and long-standing member Masai Ehehosi—focuses on and is titled, "Snuffing Out Revolution: Control Units...

More Episodes

Josh Davidson and Leslie James Pickering from the Certain Days collective join the show to talk about 2024’s Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar and the work of their collective. We previously spoke with Josh and other folks from the collective back in 2020 and we encourage you to go listen to that episode if you haven’t heard it yet.

Josh and Leslie spoke to us about the works included in the 2024 calendar, how they’ve navigated increasingly oppressive mail policies to distribute it, Josh’s upcoming book with political prisoner Eric King, the impact that focusing their work around solidarity with political prisoners has had on their political analysis and organizing, and a lot more.

The Certain Days Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal, New York, and Baltimore, and current and former political prisoners, including currently imprisoned Xinachtli (s/n Alvaro Luna Hernandez) in Texas. They welcomed founding members Herman Bell and Robert Seth Hayes (Rest in Power) home from prison in 2018, and David Gilbert in 2021, each of whom spent over forty years behind bars. All of the current members of the outside collective are grounded in day-to-day organizing work other than the calendar, on issues ranging from legal aid to community media, radical education to prisoner solidarity. And they work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer- and trans-liberationist position. All proceeds from the calendar go to abolitionist organizations working for a better world. We highly encourage you to pick up a few copies of the calendar if you haven’t already.

Josh Davidson is an abolitionist who is involved in numerous projects, including the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar collective and the Children’s Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blanco. Josh also works in communications with the Zinn Education Project, which promotes the teaching of radical people’s history in classrooms and provides free lessons and resources for educators. Along with political prisoner Eric King, Josh co-edited the anthology Rattling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Political Prisoners (AK Press, 2023). He lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Leslie James Pickering is a member of the Certain Days collective. He is a co-owner of Burning Books and was spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front Press Office