Mariame Kaba
Mariame Kaba | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Education | McGill University (BA) |
Occupation | Organizer |
Notable work | We Do This 'Til We Free Us |
Mariame Kaba is an American activist, grassroots organizer, and educator who advocates for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, including all police.[1] She is the author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us (2021). The Mariame Kaba Papers are held by the Chicago Public Library Special Collections.[2]
Early life and education
Mariame Kaba was born in New York City to immigrant parents.[3] Her mother emigrated from the Ivory Coast;[3] her father was involved in the independence struggle in Guinea.[4]
Mariame grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and attended Lycée Français.[5] As a child, she viewed the world through a black nationalist framework and looked for ways to help others.[6] Kaba received a B.A. in Sociology from McGill University in 1992.[7] In 1995 she moved to Chicago to study sociology at Northwestern University.[3][8] She completed her master's degree in Library and Information Science at Pratt Institute.[9]
Career
In Chicago, she founded the Chicago Freedom School,[10] the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team (YWAT),[3] Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women,[11][12] Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander,[13] and We Charge Genocide (WCG).[14] In 2009, Kaba founded the organization Project NIA, which advocates to end youth incarceration.[15][16]
Kaba views prison abolition as the total dismantling of prison and policing while building up community services and opposes the reform of policing.[17][18] Her work has created the framework for current abolitionist organizations including Black Youth Project 100, Black Lives Matter Chicago, and Assata's Daughters.[6] She also helped found the organization Survived and Punished, an abolitionist organization that seeks to end sentencing for victims of intimate partner violence who defend themselves.[19] This project grew out of efforts to free Marissa Alexander.[20]
Writing
Kaba maintained a blog, "US Prison Culture," beginning in 2010. She has been active on Twitter under the account @prisonculture.[21][22]
In 2012, she wrote Resisting Police Violence in Harlem, a historical pamphlet detailing the policing and violence in Harlem.[23]
In March 2018, she wrote Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping A History Of Black Women On Chicago’s South Side with Essence McDowell. Started in 2012, the book is written as a guidebook that maps the history of the influential Black women who contributed to the development of Chicago during the 19th and 20th centuries.[24][8]
In 2021, she published We Do This 'Til We Free Us with
Awards
- 2010 7th District Community Award from Illinois State Senator Heather Steans[27]
- 2012 Courage Tour Award from A Long Walk Home[28]
- 2013 Ed Marciniak Bright Star Award from the Bright Promises Foundation[29]
- 2014 Impact Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women[30]
- 2014 Women Who Dared Award from Chicago NOW[31]
- 2014 Partner in Justice Award from Lawndale Christian Legal Center[32]
- 2015 Women to Celebrate Award[33]
- 2016 AERA Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award[34]
- 2016-2017 Soros Justice Fellow.[35]
- 2017 Ron Sable Award for Activism[36]
- 2017 War Resisters League Peace Award[37]
- 2022 Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters awarded by Chicago Theological Seminary[38][39]
- 2022 Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar[40]
Anti-violence projects
- A World Without Prisons Art Exhibit[41] curated by Project NIA and Free Write Jail Arts & Literacy Program.[42]
- Restorative Posters Project[43][44]
- Co-curated No Selves to Defend.[45]
- Co-curated Blood at the Root – Unearthing the Stories of State Violence Against Black Women and Girls.[46][47][48]
- Co-curated Making Niggers: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness[49]
- Co-curated Black/Inside. Black/Inside: A History of Captivity & Confinement in the U.S. Art Exhibit on display at African American Cultural Center Gallery[50]
Publications
- Kaba, Mariame (2012). "An (Abridged) History of Resisting Police Violence in Harlem" (PDF). Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- Kaba, Mariame (June 12, 2020). "Opinion | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police". ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
- Kaba, Mariame (December 28, 2015). "All of Chicago – not just its police – must see systemic change to save black lives | Mariame Kaba". The Guardian. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- "For blacks, America is dangerous by default". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- Kaba, Mariame (May 2, 2018). "Why I'm Raising Money to Build an Ida B. Wells Monument". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- Kaba, Mariame; Smith, Andrea; Adelman, Lori; Gay, Roxane. "Where Twitter and Feminism Meet | The Nation". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- "How to Repair the Criminal Justice System". Vice.com. October 5, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- "To Live and Die in "Chiraq."" The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape. Eds Javon Johnson and Kevin Coval. Northwestern University Press.[51]
- "Bresha Meadows Returns Home After Collective Organizing Efforts." Teen Vogue.[52]
- "For Mother's Day, Activists Are Bailing Black Mamas out of Jail." Broadly.[53]
- Foreword, As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation, by Zoé Samudzi and William C. Anderson. AK Press. 2018.[54]
- Introduction, Trying To Make the Personal Political, with the Women's Action Alliance, Lori Sharpe, Jane Ginsburg and Gail Gordon, and Jacqui Shine. Half-Letter Press. 2017.[55]
- Kaba, Mariame; Hayes, Kelly (2023). Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. Haymarket Books.
References
- ^ Kaba, Mariame (June 12, 2020). "Opinion | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
- ^ "Mariame Kaba Papers". www.chipublib.org. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "#WarriorWednesdays: Mariame Kaba Is Our Very Own Modern Day Abolitionist". Essence. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ Ewing, Eve L. (Fall 2019). "Mariame Kaba: Everything Worthwhile Is Done With Other People". Adi magazine. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ "Why Is This Happening? Thinking about how to abolish prisons with Mariame Kaba". NBC News. April 10, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ a b Dukmasova, Maya (August 25, 2016). "Abolish the police? Organizers say it's less crazy than it sounds". Chicago Reader. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ "New website celebrates Black McGill grads". July 8, 2020.
- ^ a b Bowean, Lolly (March 16, 2018). "Guidebook maps the legacy of black women on Chicago's South Side". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ Richardson, Catherine. "LibGuides: Bestselling Books by Black Authors: Home". prattlis.libguides.com. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
- ^ Nair, Yasmin (May 11, 2016). "Talking with prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba - LGBT News - Windy City Times". Windy City Times. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- ^ "Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women". www.chitaskforce.org. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-7382-17031.
- ^ "No Selves to Defend: Poetry about Criminalization and Violence Against Women". wordpress.com. September 29, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "We Charge Genocide". wechargegenocide.org. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Project NIA > About Us". project-nia.org. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "How to Never Call the Cops Again: A Guide with a Few Alternatives to Calling Police". Autostraddle. June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
- ^ Kaba, Mariame (December 7, 2014). "Police "Reforms" You Should Always Oppose". Truthout. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ Pollitt, Katha (July 28, 2019). "Give Your Heart Out!". The Nation. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
- from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
- ^ "Prison Culture". Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "prisonculture". Twitter. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ "A Tour Of Black Women's Stories On Chicago's South Side". WBEZ Chicago. August 27, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
- ^ "Paperback Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers - Books - The New York Times". The New York Times. March 14, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
- ^ The Chicago Reader. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
- ^ "Illinois State Senator Heather Steans". www.senatorsteans.com. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "A Long Walk Home | Stars Foundation". www.starsfoundation.org.uk. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Awards". www.brightpromises.org. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "2018 Impact Awards - Chicago Foundation for Women". Chicago Foundation for Women. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Join us for Women Who Dared 2014!". Chicago NOW. August 29, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Lawndale Christian Legal Center". lclc.net. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Women to Celebrate". Transformative Spaces. March 5, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Awards". www.aera.net. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Mariame Kaba". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Ron Sable Award for Activism | Crossroads Fund". crossroadsfund.org. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "WRL Peace Awards Recipients and Annual Dinner Speakers". War Resisters League. March 27, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ @prisonculture (May 13, 2022). "Twitter post" (Tweet) – via Twitter. [dead link]
- ^ CTS Commencement ctschicago.edu May 2022
- ^ "Marguerite Casey Foundation announces 2022 Freedom Scholars". www.caseygrants.org. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ^ "A World Without Prisons: A Conversation with Mariame Kaba". Lumpen Magazine. April 8, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Dubler, Joshua; Lloyd, Vincent (May 19, 2018). "Think prison abolition in America is impossible? It once felt inevitable | Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd". The Guardian. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Restorative Posters | Representing Justice Visually". rjposters.com. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "The Art of Restorative Questions". Cultural Organizing. October 5, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Disappearing Acts: Domestic Violence & Black Legal Subjects | UCB Center for Race & Gender". www.crg.berkeley.edu. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Prison Culture » Video: Blood at the Root Exhibition". www.usprisonculture.com. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "the art of the black lives matter movement". I-d. September 11, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Rekia Boyd, Other Female Victims of Police Violence Honored in Exhibit". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Prison Culture » Making Niggers: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness". www.usprisonculture.com. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "Black/Inside". African American Cultural Center.
- ^ "The End of Chiraq | Northwestern University Press". www.nupress.northwestern.edu. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ Kaba, Mariame; Lenz, Colby. "How We Worked to #FreeBresha Meadows from Incarceration". Teen Vogue. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ^ "For Mother's Day, Activists Are Bailing Black Mamas out of Jail". Broadly. May 10, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- ISBN 9781849353168.
- ^ "Trying to Make the Personal Political: Feminism and Consciousness-Raising".
Further reading
- Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta (May 7, 2021). "The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 7, 2021.