Mariame Kaba

Mariame Kaba is an American activist and organizer who advocates for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, including all police[1].

Early life and education

Mariame Kaba was born in New York City to parents who had immigrated from Guinea and the Ivory Coast.[2] She grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and attended Lycée Français.[3] As a child, she viewed the world through a black nationalist framework and looked for ways to help others.[4]

In 1995 she moved to Chicago to study sociology at Northwestern University.[2][5]

Career

In Chicago, she founded the Chicago Freedom School, the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT),[2] Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women,[6][7] Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander,[8] and We Charge Genocide (WCG).[9] In 2009, Kaba founded the organization Project NIA, which advocates to end youth incarceration.[10][11]

Kaba views prison abolition as the total dismantling of prison and policing while building up community services and opposes the reform of policing.[12][13] Her work has created the framework for current abolition organizations including Black Youth Project 100, Black Lives Matter Chicago, and Assata's Daughters.[4]

Writing

In 2012, she wrote Resisting Police Violence in Harlem, a historical pamphlet detailing the policing and violence in Harlem.[14][15]

In June 2018, she wrote the foreword for, As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation, a critical book by Zoé Samudzi and William C. Anderson that describes the importance of Black anarchist and abolitionist principles to contemporary social justice movements.[16]

In 2019, 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 helped develop Chicago.[17][5]

Awards
  • 2010 7th District Community Award from State Senator Heather Steans[18]
  • 2012 Courage Tour Award from A Long Walk Home[19]
  • 2013 Ed Marciniak Bright Star Award from the Bright Promises Foundation[20]
  • 2014 Impact Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women[21]
  • 2014 Women Who Dared Award from Chicago NOW[22]
  • 2014 Partner in Justice Award from Lawndale Christian Legal Center [23]
  • 2015 Women to Celebrate Award[24]
  • 2016 AERA Ella Baker/Septima Clark Human Rights Award[25]
  • 2016-2017 Soros Justice Fellow.[26]
  • 2017 Ron Sable Award for Activism[27]
  • 2017 Peace Award by War Resisters League[28]

Anti-violence projects
  • A World Without Prisons Art Exhibit[29] curated by Project NIA and Free Write Jail Arts & Literacy Program.[30]
  • Restorative Posters Project[31][32]
  • Co-curated No Selves to Defend.[33]
  • Co-curated Blood at the Root – Unearthing the Stories of State Violence Against Black Women and Girls.[34][35][36]
  • Co-curated Making Niggers: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness[37]
  • 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[38]

Publications
  • "Yes, We Literally Mean Abolish the Police." The New York Times.[39]
  • "All of Chicago – not just its police – must see systemic change to save black lives." The Guardian.[40]
  • "For blacks, America is dangerous by default." The Washington Post.[41]
  • "Why I’m Raising Money To Build An Ida B. Wells Monument." The Huffington Post.[42]
  • "Where Twitter and Feminism Meet." The Nation.[43]
  • "How to Repair the Criminal Justice System." VICE.[44]
  • "To Live and Die in "Chiraq."" The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape. Eds Javon Johnson and Kevin Coval. Northwestern University Press.[45]
  • "Bresha Meadows Returns Home After Collective Organizing Efforts." Teen Vogue.[46]
  • "For Mother's Day, Activists Are Bailing Black Mamas out of Jail." Broadly. [47]
  • Foreword, As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation, by Zoé Samudzi and William C. Anderson. AK Press. 2018.[48]

References
  1. Kaba, Mariame (12 June 2020). "Opinion | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  2. "#WarriorWednesdays: Mariame Kaba Is Our Very Own Modern Day Abolitionist". Essence. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  3. "Why Is This Happening? Thinking about how to abolish prisons with Mariame Kaba". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  4. Dukmasova, Maya. "Abolish the police? Organizers say it's less crazy than it sounds". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  5. Bowean, Lolly. "Guidebook maps the legacy of black women on Chicago's South Side". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  6. "Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women". www.chitaskforce.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  7. Harding, Kate (2015-08-25). Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture--and What We Can Do about It (in Arabic). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-7382-17031.
  8. "No Selves to Defend: Poetry about Criminalization and Violence Against Women". wordpress.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  9. "We Charge Genocide". wechargegenocide.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  10. "Project NIA > About Us". project-nia.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  11. "How to Never Call the Cops Again: A Guide with a Few Alternatives to Calling Police". Autostraddle. 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  12. Kaba, Mariame (2020-06-12). "Opinion | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  13. Kaba, Mariame. "Police "Reforms" You Should Always Oppose". Truthout. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  14. Martin, Douglas (2014-10-08). "Robert Mangum, a City and Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 93". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  15. Kaba, Mariame (2012). "An (Abridged) History of Resisting Police Violence in Harlem" (PDF). Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  16. Samudzi, Zoé; Anderson, William C.; Kaba, Mariame (June 5, 2018). As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation. Chico, California: AK Press. ISBN 9781849353168.
  17. "A Tour Of Black Women's Stories On Chicago's South Side". WBEZ Chicago. 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  18. "Illinois State Senator Heather Steans". www.senatorsteans.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  19. "A Long Walk Home | Stars Foundation". www.starsfoundation.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  20. "Awards". www.brightpromises.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  21. "2018 Impact Awards - Chicago Foundation for Women". Chicago Foundation for Women. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  22. "Join us for Women Who Dared 2014!". Chicago NOW. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  23. "Lawndale Christian Legal Center". lclc.net. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  24. "Women to Celebrate". Transformative Spaces. 2015-03-05. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  25. "Awards". www.aera.net. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  26. "Mariame Kaba". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  27. "Ron Sable Award for Activism | Crossroads Fund". crossroadsfund.org. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  28. "WRL Peace Awards Recipients and Annual Dinner Speakers". War Resisters League. 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  29. "A World Without Prisons: A Conversation with Mariame Kaba". Lumpen Magazine. 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  30. Dubler, Joshua; Lloyd, Vincent (2018-05-19). "Think prison abolition in America is impossible? It once felt inevitable | Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  31. "Restorative Posters | Representing Justice Visually". rjposters.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  32. "The Art of Restorative Questions". Cultural Organizing. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  33. "Disappearing Acts: Domestic Violence & Black Legal Subjects | UCB Center for Race & Gender". www.crg.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  34. "Prison Culture » Video: Blood at the Root Exhibition". www.usprisonculture.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  35. "the art of the black lives matter movement". I-d. 2015-09-11. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  36. "Rekia Boyd, Other Female Victims of Police Violence Honored in Exhibit". DNAinfo Chicago. Archived from the original on 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  37. "Prison Culture » Making Niggers: Demonizing and Distorting Blackness". www.usprisonculture.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  38. "Black/Inside". African American Cultural Center.
  39. Kaba, Mariame (2020-06-12). "Opinion | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  40. Kaba, Mariame (2015-12-28). "All of Chicago – not just its police – must see systemic change to save black lives | Mariame Kaba". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  41. "For blacks, America is dangerous by default". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  42. Kaba, Mariame (2018-05-02). "Why I'm Raising Money to Build an Ida B. Wells Monument". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  43. Kaba, Mariame; Smith, Andrea; Adelman, Lori; Gay, Roxane. "Where Twitter and Feminism Meet | The Nation". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  44. "How to Repair the Criminal Justice System". Vice.com. 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  45. "The End of Chiraq | Northwestern University Press". www.nupress.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  46. Mariame Kaba; Colby Lenz. "How We Worked to #FreeBresha Meadows from Incarceration". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  47. "For Mother's Day, Activists Are Bailing Black Mamas out of Jail". Broadly. 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  48. Samudzi, Zoé; Anderson, William C.; Kaba, Mariame (June 5, 2018). As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation. Chico, California: AK Press. ISBN 9781849353168.
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