Are you really an abolitionist?

This is perhaps one of the most important questions that we will wrestle with together. So I want to really make sure I prepare you for just how extensive I think this conversation needs to be.

For a lot of people--perhaps even most people--abolition is an abstract idea that sits somewhere between an idealistic dream of a better world and the practical reality that society needs protecting. While most of us would agree that prison does not adequately rehabilitate the vast majority of incarcerated people, we also know that the answer can't be to leave crime unaddressed.

So what does it mean to wrestle with the prison system practically?

Does it mean employing restorative justice where we can, while continuing to isolate violent offenders for the safety of society?

Does it mean that murderers and rapists are just left to continue enacting violence?

Does it mean restructuring our justice system entirely? And if so, what do we build in its place?

There are a million questions that we have to consider in order to have an effective conversation about abolition. And at the core of all of them is one single question that many of us are honestly just too afraid to really sit with:

Do I believe that criminals are as human as I am?

And I use that word intentionally. Because often, it is easy for us to wiggle around this question by focusing our activism on the innocent people who fall through the cracks. But I don't want to talk about them. You don't need an ounce of abolitionist worldview to fight for the wrongly accused. I am asking you to sit with whether or not you can accept that people who are absolutely guilty of the most violent, vile crimes have a claim to the same rights and humanity that you do.

Do you have the capacity to fight for a future that refuses to see the guilty as animals deserving of whatever hellish conditions a clearly corrupt system decides they deserve?

For many of us, this is a terrifying line of questioning because, the truth is, we don't have that capacity.

That is the conversation being had in Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. And it is a conversation I am eager to have as a community.

Chain-Gang All-Stars follows two women as they engage in a series of gladiator-style fights, where incarcerated prisoners fight to the death, with the promise that if they survive enough times, they will eventually win their freedom. Despite being friends and lovers, Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Stacker know that they are completely alone in the games. No matter how successful they are, they have been reduced to a source of entertainment for bored Americans who find it more comfortable to strip them of their humanity so they can clap as they watch them die, rather than figure out how to build a society that can foster actual change. Without ever once seeing the violence that condemned these women to die, we are forced to witness brutality on every single page as humanity just accepts that because they are guilty, they are no longer human.

With dangerous honesty, Nana Kwame forces us to question whether we have the capacity to dream of a better world for the very people who have made ours feel less safe, and whether anyone's world can be made better without a conscious effort to include everyone. And I could not be more thrilled to face that question head on with this community come September, when our Cost of Freedom box gets delivered right to your doors.

Like I said at the beginning of this blog, I believe this is one of the most important questions that we can wrestle with. As Nana Kwame demonstrates in Chain-Gang All-Stars, the American carceral state exists to dehumanize and enslave. It does not protect us from the symptoms of our failing society. It does not rehabilitate us when we fail. And it does not contribute to the betterment of our society. In fact, its only value is in fattening the pockets of billionaires and strengthening the political power of our oppressors.

We cannot be free while we applaud the enslavement of our neighbors, even if they aren't good neighbors.

My goal with The Cost of Freedom reading experience is to take texts that say something dangerous and radical about both (a) the world we live in and (b) the world we could be building and to collectively challenge ourselves to dream. As I say often, I believe literature has the power to change the world. And this is exactly how it accomplishes it.

So I am going to ask you to come be a part of it.

If you missed the deadline to subscribe for the June reading experience, you can still participate. Subscribe to the $12 tier today and you will get access to a large portion of the exclusive commentary I have created for us to go through as we read Tender is the Flesh next month. You can buy your copy of the book HERE, and join us in many of the discussions in our subscribers-only discord rooms, as well as on exclusive zoom calls we will be having throughout the next month or two. Every copy that is purchased through my link will result in a small commission for Paperbacks & Frybread, an Indigenous owned bookstore in NC.

But I want to encourage you to go beyond that and to invest in this next course of dialogue as well. If you want to receive the physical benefits of our September reading (Chain-Gang All-Stars), upgrade to the $25 tier right away. The cut-off to be a part of that is the first of June, which is coming up in just a couple of days. So go ahead and get it done today and make sure your package gets delivered right to your door by Bindery.

Obviously, if $25 is beyond your capacity, I want you to still be a part. So upgrade to that $12 tier, and I will make a large portion of the commentary available to you digitally again. While one of our aims with this content is to generate the support we need to grow this publishing community, accessibility matters a great deal to me and I do not want you to ever feel left behind.

Just like we are doing with Tender is the Flesh next month, Chain-Gang All-Stars will be our September bookclub pick. So you are welcome to read it with us whether you are a paid subscriber or not. But if you have the means to join us for the full experience, I really want to encourage you to do so. For two reasons:

First, because I think the work we are doing here matters a great deal and it would mean the world to me if as many people as possible would invest in our growth as a company, so that we can continue to invest more and more resources and energy into creating measurable and lasting change for Black and brown authors. Your subscriptions are not about lining our pockets. They are about enabling us to fight harder for the authors who rely on us. So for that reason, I think there is value in subscribing at a paid tier.

And Secondly, because I meant it when I said this is perhaps one of the most important questions we will ever wrestle with as a community. When I first began reading Chain-Gang All-Stars, I thought I was an abolitionist. But by the time I had finished reading it, I actually was one. That is the value in this book. And I can only imagine that value increases as we engage in this conversation as a community, each contributing our own thoughts and experiences into that reading experience.

So for me, I need y'all to come be a part of this. Because I want to see what happens when three thousand people get together to start dreaming about a world where slavery is actually abolished.

Hit that upgrade button. I promise you this conversation is going to be worth it.

And if you just can't wait and you NEED to buy a copy of Chain-Gang All-Stars today, use my link please! It supports both me and a local bookstore. Thanks! You can find it HERE.

While I have you here, I also want to take a moment to remind you that our next book is currently available for pre-order. Buzzard is a near-future dystopian wrestling with similar questions as Chain-Gang All-Stars, honestly. It follows a midwife in a near-future, fractured version of America after she is incarcerated for illegally providing abortion care for her community. It explores the abuses that happen in the prison system and the way our humanity is always up for negotiation once our government is given an excuse to paint us as a villain. Pre-Orders make a huge difference as we fight for marginalized stories and I would appreciate it deeply if you would order your copy today. You can get it HERE for 15% off with discount code: BUZZARD15