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One must imagine Sisyphus happy

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this was the only way to guarantee your kid grew up indie

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“Once upon a time, in 1977, Assata Shakur was sentenced to life in prison for daring not to die when police gunned her down on a New Jersey highway in 1973, and for being too Black, too free, too bold, too clear and articulate in her revolutionary insight, too beautiful, too brave, too audacious in her love for Black people. We are talking about a woman who conceived a daughter with a revolutionary comrade in a courthouse in between trial appearances while under the most intense watch the state could provide. Talk about creating love in a hopeless place. That daughter, Kakuya, refused to accept her mother’s imprisonment and the separation it would cause. At the age of three, enraged, she even refused to call Shakur “mama” unless Shakur did everything she could to get out of prison. So she did. Shakur called on the Black Liberation Army and allies from radical white organizations to coordinate the most well-known successful break out of a U.S. political prisoner. And when the time came, her community answered. In fact, revolutionaries such as holistic healer Mutulu Shakur and the late poet Marilyn Buck are serving and served life sentences related to this action. As Assata explains in a 1988 interview with Cheryll Greene in Essence magazine (her first interview after her escape), it was her daughter’s ultimatum that motivated her to call on the coalition that risked everything to help free her. Kakuya knew at the age of three what many of us are still learning about prisons and incarceration: Our freedom, the freedom of our futures, and the freedom of our species requires the freedom of our mothers. In a webinar inspired by Assata and Kakuya that I led a few months ago, we discussed how that’s sometimes a freedom beyond even what our mamas can imagine. Once upon a time, in 1947, a Georgia sharecropper named Rosa Lee Ingram and her two teenage sons were locked up for believing their bodies and the land on which they farmed were worth defending. After a white neighbor sexually and physically attacked her and her children, Ingram and her 16- and 18-year-old sons were charged with murder for defending themselves and sentenced to death by an all-white jury in a one-day trial. On Mother’s Day 1949, members of the Civil Rights Congress’ National Committee to Free the Ingram Family—led by Mary Church Terrell and international Black feminist left organization Sojourners for Truth and Justice—organized an international protest, flooding the White House with revolutionary Mother’s Day cards and contacting every single member state of the United Nations to demand Ingram’s release and defend her right to protect herself and her children from rape. Through more than a decade of organizing, they were able to get her sentence changed from the death penalty to life in prison, and then to ultimately argue her full release. Later, in 1974, Black feminists would rally around a similar case, that of Joan Little, who was sentenced to the death penalty for killing a prison guard twice her size as he attempted to rape her. Because of intersectional organizing and awareness raising by Black feminists, Little would become the first woman to be acquitted for using deadly force while defending herself from sexual assault. Black Lives Matter chapters and Southerners on New Ground (a regional multiracial, working-class abolitionist organization) are organizing the National Black Mama’s Bail Out Day Action, which you can support financially by donating. This bailout is a part of a national abolitionist effort to end money bail, which disproportionately keeps poor people who have not been convicted of crimes in jail. To help raise funds for the cause, folks in my community will be partying in honor of Ma Rainey, gathering allies like Assata Shakur did, singing our hearts out, and celebrating Mother’s Day like we mean it. In “A HerStory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement,” Alicia Garza responds to “all lives matter” apologists by stating, “When Black people get free, everybody gets free.” With that she is echoing (without directly citing) an earlier, more nuanced 1977 intersectional declaration by the Black lesbian socialist feminist Combahee River Collective: “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.” Colloquially, anyone with any sense says, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” To build on the logic of the Combahee River Collective, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the tradition of freeing ourselves by freeing the Black mamas who risk everything, I say: “If Mama’s free. Everybody’s free.” Free Black Mamas.”

—

If Mama’s Free: Abolitionist Blues for Liberation by Alexis Pauline Gumbs 

if you want to support this effort then please donate here

(via navigatethestream)

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Many people like to (correctly) point out the hypocrisy of religious extremists claiming to "protect the children" by restricting their access to information. As has been proven time and again, knowledge protects children from harm, helps them to identify abuse, and teaches them ways to protect themselves proactively. An "innocent, pure" child is a euphemism for a child that is ignorant, kept in the dark about things that could harm them. No amount of distress brought on by learning disturbing information could endanger a child the way that information control can.

The issue with this criticism is that it misunderstands what conservatives mean by "protecting" children. They don't think of children as independent beings who deserve dignity and respect. They think of them as future investments, cultural tokens, and blank slates to pour their dogma into. A church wants to "protect" children from information that might make them leave the faith, even if that information could improve the child's life. A conservative parent wants to "protect" children from information about abuse, religious coercion, bodily autonomy... anything that could loosen the parent's power and control over the child. What these groups are really "protecting" is their investment. They see children as property that they are entitled to groom and manipulate to whatever purposes they see fit, and they attack anyone and anything that suggests otherwise.

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💔🇵🇸 My Daughter Was Born Under Bombs — I'm Just Trying to Keep Her Alive

My name is Abdulmajid.

I got married one month before the war. Those were beautiful days — full of hope, love, and simple dreams. I dreamed of a small home, a quiet family, and a baby girl I could hold without fear.

But the war came… Suddenly. Brutally.

My mother was killed. My brother was killed. Children in my family were taken by the bombs. My home was destroyed. And my work stopped completely.

Then… in the middle of this nightmare, my baby girl was born. A tiny soul, innocent, unaware of the war. She cries from hunger, from cold, from the sounds of bombs shaking what’s left of our walls.

Today, I’m a father with almost nothing… Fighting every day to find flour, milk, or even a small meal to feed my child.

Prices are sky-high — a single 25kg bag of flour can cost $800. There is no work. No income. No safety. No stability.

I write this from under siege, hoping my heart will reach yours.

Even $1 can make a difference. It can feed a child, buy milk, or bring a moment of peace. Be the heart that reaches Gaza. Be the hand that saves.

📌 Please share this post. Let our voices be heard — not buried under rubble.

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As always.

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everyone can judge my painting skills, but I love the mini I just finished!

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They found a fallen star

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We need etsy to get bought by someone who will run it like the navy i need to only see small businesses in eastern europe weaving baskets by hand and anime yaoi keychains with original fanart

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baby pride parade today. soothes the soul.

fyi-- the art is the philly pride flag, as done by babies.

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He’s a musician

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does anyone know if we have a horrendous waking nightmare tomorrow

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Been getting really into orange juice lately

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A trans woman was just sentenced to 15 years in prison for defending herself from an attacker. She wanted no part in the fight and witnesses described her actions as self-defense. With right-wing media constantly portraying her as "evil" since the incident, the trial was over before it began.