Announcement and Invitation

Virtual Teach-In: Creating Anti-racist Communities

Solidarity, Decarceration and Abolition 

7:00-9:00 pm, October 26, 2021

While Ithaca and Tompkins County focus on “reimagining public safety,” many people want to spark deeper conversations and build a movement that goes beyond a government-centered approach. We want genuine transformative and restorative justice! We want real abolitionist strategies! 

This forum will discuss a social movement approach to changing the current system and building relationships in our communities based on principles of equity, justice and healing. Join us! Spread the word!

Goals: 

• Share practical lessons, building knowledge and solidarity

• Expand supportive community spaces for people formerly incarcerated and their loved ones to talk about their experiences, needs and visions 

• Build support and recruit members for a new workgroup "Transforming Justice and Abolitionist Organizing"

• Create an opportunity for antiracist groups, including other SURJ chapters in NYS, to learn about and get involved with initiatives to transform justice systems and organize for abolition 

We’ll learn from the  People's Campaign for Parole Justice, Central NY Alliance of Families for Justice, and from local efforts to build alternatives to policing and incarceration. Speakers will include: Mark Shervington, statewide advocacy associate for Release Aging People in Prison; Khalil Bey, assistant coordinator for the Alliance of Families for Justice; Rochelle Matthews, activist with Ithaca Pantheras, and Carl Williams, social movement lawyer and organizer for racial justice, abolition and liberation. We’ll have break-out groups in addition to the panelists.

Please register here to get zoom link for teach-in.

Co-sponsors: Tompkins County Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and Coordinating Circle, Dryden Groton Plus - Human Dignity Coalition

For more information, contact Beth Harris beth55harris@... or Kathy Russell kathystute@...