some summer break good news
summers can be hard for me as a teacher. i know it sounds like champagne problems, but my routine—or what small semblance of one i've been able to hold together this year—falls apart. i've visited family and now i'm focused on getting some writing done, but school and my kids are never far from my mind. i spend equal amounts of time dreaming about next year's class and worrying about my kids making it through the summer whole and healthy.
the new orleans headlines are tough and, as always, the rhetoric of criminalization is the default response. this would maybe be understandable if we weren't already the most criminalized "democracy" in the world. seriously, if locking people up created safety, Louisiana would be the safest place in the world.
it is not.
i'm working to balance the dreaming and the worrying. the worrying comes easier, so i work harder at the dreaming. this newsletter is a collection of things that are grounding me in the reality that the dream is possible, it is actual, it is happening in pockets and corners.
abolition is possible, it is actual, it is happening in pockets and corners.
here's some fuel for the dreaming:
Formerly incarcerated young person: "I want to see a place where young people are invested in and listened to and shown that people love them and care about them-especially young people who've been in the system" 2/
— Septima P. Snark (@DrSubini) June 15, 2022
📣 BREAKING
— Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women (@HawaiiCSW) June 16, 2022
There are zero incarcerated girls in Hawai’i. For the 1st time in the history of the Hawai’i Youth Correctional Facility, it is empty of girls. This is no fluke or accident. HYCF has been empty for weeks after years of work to replace handcuffs with healing.
Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, where we had the opportunity to visit Kupa Aina: a beautiful farm that sits next to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility that implements aloha and malama aina through planting Native Hawaiian plants for food, encompassing community, unity, and service.
Kupa Aina offers a place of healing and restoration for youth and community members alike, showing that Hawaiian values and traditions can provide learning, growth, change and connection in all who practice them.
In 30 months, we reduced the jail pop. by 38%. We reduced the SF prison pop. by 35%. We stopped charging kids as adults and reduced the # of kids in jail by 50%. We have seen victims forgive and those who harmed atone. All while violent crime has gone down.
— Kate Chatfield (@ChatfieldKate) June 8, 2022
We have already won.
I definitely believe that self esteem is community built. It’s such a struggle to actually believe you’re worth anything if your surroundings don’t support that. With that being said, go where you are valued, cared for, and loved. It’ll do wonders for your self esteem.
— Jasmine Marie 👄 (@itsjasminetoyou) June 1, 2022
None of my students left the class this year harmed by thinking critically about U.S. history. From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the civil rights movement to Lydia X. Z. Brown and X González, young people have always been involved in and led movements toward justice.
Conservatives aren’t afraid that students can’t handle uncomfortable truths about the past—they’re afraid of what they’ll do about it.
if you want to be the good news, i'm fundraising for a flexible, comfortable classroom space for my kids to come back to after the summer. if you can't donate, please share:
as always, i hope this was helpful.
if it was and you've got five bucks a month to spare, click here.
with hope,
katie wills evans