# data[].attributes.body
"When such efforts are successful,...what was once an intervention becomes political wallpaper. Radicalism that is not successfully co-opted or defanged, that continues to linger within the mainstream, will be met with increasing hostility &, ultimately, condemned as associated with violence."

# data[].attributes.body
"When a radical...movement forces...into the mainstream, the first reaction...is to eject it. But if that...cannot be ejected, structural maintenance workers—such as public officials...who benefit from the status quo—will attempt to defang & reconfigure it so that...[i]t is no longer disruptive"

# data[].attributes.body
"Some moments are about recognizing where we have been, what we have learned, how we have grown, & what...the future demands of us. The end of 1 project can mean the beginning of new dreams...We have said many goodbyes..., yet the work goes on, & so do we, building...in concert with other humans."

# data[].attributes.body
"We have learned that letting go can be a beautiful thing. Honoring what a group...has accomplished and what it has meant to us while preserving its history and,...carrying its lessons forward, can be an emotional process, but not everything in organizing is about fighting tooth and nail."

# data[].attributes.body
“If we...hold on to the idea that our projects...are alive, we can...hold space for the idea that all things that are alive...die, & the most beautiful thing you can do when something is dying is to allow it to pass on with as much dignity & grace as possible, honoring it in all of its complexity."

# data[].attributes.body
As...Tanuja Jagernauth told Kelly..., it can be helpful to think of the groups & containers we create as having life cycles...She noted..this idea of a life cycle can be important, not only in terms of the care with which we bring our projects into the world but also in terms of how we let them go."

# data[].attributes.body
"Sometimes we must release a current project...to pursue new visions...After doing generative work together, people often grow in a variety of directions. We should appreciate the beauty of that growth...It launched art projects & research efforts, built relationships & made new formations possible"

# data[].attributes.body
"The...projects that we have...intentionally concluded were meaningful and generative. Due to evolving conditions, those projects were no longer the best...group for the work participants wanted to do. Sometimes this happens because people’s aims...simply outgrow the container they have created."

# data[].attributes.body
"Sometimes when we feel burned out or confused about how to move forward with our group, it may be because our project, container, or organization has simply run its course. It’s important to understand that deciding it’s time to end something we have created is not a mark of failure."

# data[].attributes.body
"It can...be the result of burnout, exhaustion, or...being fed up with the challenges of social justice work. For whatever reason, many...step back for long stretches but ultimately return to...organizing. So if it has been a long time, but you are feeling called to return, perhaps spring has come."

# data[].attributes.body
"While experiencing winter, on a personal level, some organizers may step back from movement work entirely. This can be the result of a major life change, such as an illness, the arrival of a new child, moving to a different city, caring for a loved one, or some other development."

# data[].attributes.body
"Rather than operating at a breakneck pace until we crash & burn, respecting our seasons allows us to... build meaningful connections & projects throughout each cycle...To...do...the right thing at the right time, we must recognize which season we are in, honor it, & most importantly, protect it."

# data[].attributes.body
"Rather than operating at a breakneck pace until we crash & burn, respecting our seasons allows us to... build meaningful connections & projects throughout each cycle...To...do...the right thing at the right time, we must recognize which season we are in, honor it, & most importantly, protect it."

# data[].attributes.body
"Saavedra refers to this...fear of taking winters as...[being] scared of going within, or maybe to deal with the pain of previous seasons to be able to then regenerate. And so people sometimes are stuck. They know that the eternal summer is bad, but they are afraid of going into a time within.”

# data[].attributes.body
“There is even a stigma to burning out...,” he added, noting that “this is exacerbated by not taking a long-view perspective that recognizes how social movements operate in cycles of 5-15 years.” Some activists are averse to slowing down and embracing periods of introspection and renewal."

# data[].attributes.body
"Capitalism “creates this expectation of...the eternal summer and this expectation that everyone should be in the eternal summer all the time.” Saavedra...pointed out that we have been conditioned to zero in on...productivity as a point of interest by asking what they do or what they...work...on."

# data[].attributes.body
"The metaphorical winter is the most difficult season for many..., because we have been conditioned to view less energetic periods...as...failure...It’s...difficult...to be in a rhythm of seasons...because of the nature of the global system...that is highly...productivist, which is capitalism."

# data[].attributes.body
"Fall is a time of harvest, when movements have achieved victories or endured losses. In fall, projects and coalitions may break down or sunset as the pace of work slows, allowing organizers time to reflect, share stories, and uplift the labor of the previous season."

# data[].attributes.body
"The metaphorical spring is a time of growth: the capacity to educate and organize new people is ramped up, relationships are expanded, and new coalitions are built. Summer, in this metaphor, is a time of consistent action, when energy is high and victories are potentially claimed."

# data[].attributes.body
"The Ayni Institute, which offers political education grounded in Indigenous principles of reciprocity, reminds us that movements...all experience seasons. As...Carlos Saavedra told Kelly on Movement Memos, "...What is missing from this leadership conversation is that leadership has...ebbs & flows."

# data[].attributes.body
"Ruth Wilson Gilmore similarly tells us, “Abolition is presence, which means abolition is life in rehearsal, not a recitation of rules, much less a relentless lament.” The world-building teachings weaved throughout this book are a compass for a life in rehearsal. The rest is up to us, together."

# data[].attributes.body
"We need genuine, empathetic, and mutual social relations. Communing and kinship make movements and make life.

“We write the meaning of life as we live it,” Kelly writes."

# data[].attributes.body
"Connection is the antithesis of commodification. Those of us who experience an avalanche of violences & cannot rely on the state...for relief know how much we need & depend on 1 another to survive...Life-affirming communities can rarely be sustained...on shared political analysis [alone]"

# data[].attributes.body
"Interdependence & reciprocity are not optional. 1 of the contradictions of capitalism is that while we are dependent on...production processes for... basic needs, we are increasingly...isolated...In the face of...disposability, it is a radical act to admit that we are made & undone by each other."

# data[].attributes.body
"Fostering the spiritual, physical, & mental well-being needed to create community requires intentional space to discuss & practice—a deliberate learning of how to manifest & align ourselves with our abolitionist, decolonial, & anticapitalist visions (plural) for the world."

# data[].attributes.body
"It challenges us to bring voice to...unnamed hurts & complicated edges that stem from our deepest cracks & interpersonal dynamics that traverse often-contradictory layers of power & marginalization. “To resist the erosion of empathy”,...[we must] build movements where we are emancipated."

# data[].attributes.body
"While many...have..self-care rituals, few have conflict-resolution skills. Frankly, it is often easier to be dangerous to the state systems that we confront than it is to be tender with each other. Working collectively to nurture care & healing within liberation work is not easy."

# data[].attributes.body
"Sharing tasks and skills decentralizes knowledge, ensures a more sustainable division of labor, encourages learning, & strengthens interpersonal bonds as we work on projects together. We are all needed in the ecosystem of struggle."

# data[].attributes.body
"This necessitates proactive steps to share skills & knowledge. Leadership comes from sustained practices...: facilitating meetings, producing education materials,...preparing meals, public speaking, organizing childcare—all vital skills that might be our strengths."

# data[].attributes.body
"Instead of assuming that only some people are capable of being leaders, or adhering to the notion that no one should be a leader, valuing abundance shifts us toward a different framework: we are all leaders in different ways, and we can all become even more skilled leaders."

# data[].attributes.body
"Organizing thus not only changes the material and social conditions around us; it also changes us in the process. Collective work also encourages abundant leadership. Abundant leadership is about sharing space and power, as opposed to capitalist competition over space and power."

# data[].attributes.body
"Organizing is...transformative: it...transforms dominant systems of power, it transforms our imaginations in prefiguring a future beyond our present...apocalyptic deathscape, it transforms...collective processes by nurturing relationality, & it transforms us...as we realize...capacities."

# data[].attributes.body
"Community organizing requires us to move beyond our own circles to bring in & work alongside those who may not share our life experience or analysis. This is not a simple call for unity; rather, it is working despite & through difference...“make connections, not comparisons.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"This compelling, humbling, essential, & brilliant book distills 3 key points for me:

1. Organizing Is the Antidote to Despair

2. Collective Liberation Necessitates Collective Care

3. We Need Each Other

...A compass for a life in rehearsal. The rest is up to us, together."

# data[].attributes.body
"Their careful & caring labor enacting the vocabulary of abolition, as well as this book—itself a constellation of wisdom gleaned through...coconspirators—are reminders that...movements are made. & in the spirit of Ella Baker,...movements are made through our many hearts & hands."

# data[].attributes.body
"Leveraging social networks & fundraising resources, freeing people from the clutches of police & prisons, imparting movement lessons, doing political education & practicing mutual aid to grow our imaginations about other ways of living, & nurturing the conditions for organizers to learn & act."

# data[].attributes.body
"Kelly and Mariame’s book is a gem...Kelly and Mariame have been movement touchstones for many of us, generously modeling what it means to behave magnificently in service to transforming this world. They have been at the center of a dizzying number of crucial projects!"

# data[].attributes.body
"“Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.” So I tell myself,...every moment of despair creates the terrain for continued struggle & the possibility of future victories—a habitable world without borders & cages—if we do not allow immobilization to seep in."

# data[].attributes.body
"Reading Let This Radicalize You on a snowy winter day amid organizing support for migrants affected by the violence of an end-of-year deportation frenzy by Canada Border Services Agency was the balm my heart needed."

# data[].attributes.body
"Even if the end times are upon us, we should still plant trees. This is disciplined hope. This is hope in the doing, hope as action. How will you practice and cultivate hope today?"

# data[].attributes.body
"In Islam, one of the Hadiths says, “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘If the Resurrection were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, then let him plant it.’” This, for me, is the embodiment of a hope practice."

# data[].attributes.body
"I don’t have hope, I do hope. It’s an active process that I...regularly commit to—hope not as an emotion but as a discipline. Hope for me is grounded in the reality that wondrous things happen alongside...the terrible. Every single day...Hope isn’t a substitute for action; it is a basis for it."

# data[].attributes.body
"What are those concrete actions for you?...I wake up every single day and decide to practice hope. I do so because this is something that is singularly within my control to do...For me, hope is not a metaphor; it’s a lived practice. It isn’t a thing I possess. Rather, I have to remake it daily."

# data[].attributes.body
"You’ve been enlisted to take constructive action...Though we can’t stop all suffering, we can each work to lessen suffering...My attention is focused on looking for & trying to nurture the things that will lessen suffering. Every day I commit to bringing my imperfect & small actions to the pile."

# data[].attributes.body
"It’s usually the minority of the minority that engages in struggle in any historical moment. This is reassuring because it means that we don’t have to convince everyone...to attain critical goals. It leaves room for surprise. If you are reading this..., then you’ve been chosen to be a helper."

# data[].attributes.body
"There are many ways that things can be different in the world, & we don’t know how things will turn out, so we might as well fight like hell for the world we want to inhabit. History teaches us that...small groups of people have been responsible for some of the most consequential societal changes."

# data[].attributes.body
"We all have a role to play in building those new worlds. Determine what the next right step is for you. There is always something that is worth doing. Find your lane & push ahead. Make connections with others. Refuse to acquiesce to despair. Imagine your way forward."

# data[].attributes.body
"My comrade and fellow organizer B Loewe posted...There is always a next right thing to do, that I am never alone in my despair, and that when we come together, we can create new worlds that are kinder and more of what we all deserve...I’m remembering Organizing is always an option, and it works."

# data[].attributes.body
"As my friend, writer, artist, & scholar Eve Ewing says, “In order to create pathways toward that which we have never seen, we have to lead with imagination.” All of the most important & impactful social transformations happened because people fought & struggled for things they had never seen."

# data[].attributes.body
"Collective action is not the only ingredient to make transformative change. We also need sound strategy & resources...Radical imagination is...important to me because the horizon that I am working toward is a world I have never seen...without policing, imprisonment, or surveillance."

# data[].attributes.body
"We can personally make ripples, but it takes collective action to make waves...The reality is that each of us bringing our pebbles to the lake, & throwing them in is what it takes to make change...An endless line of us throwing our pebbles into the lake is beautiful: a necessary act taken together"

# data[].attributes.body
"We must remember the teachings of visionary world builder Octavia Butler, who wrote in Parable of the Sower:

All that you touch

You Change.

All that you Change

Changes you.

The only lasting truth

Is Change.

So, how do we make change happen? You, as an individual, are only a...pebble in a vast sea."

# data[].attributes.body
"I’m a fan of uncynical people who don’t justify their inaction by suggesting that nothing will change. If you are faltering at internalizing the fact that change is constant, find others to remind you. In fact, everything is changing all of the time."

# data[].attributes.body
"It’s important to find your somewhere & plant yourself there. There are other things you can do as you answer the question of how you will lessen suffering today. The 1st step is to refuse to accept that nothing can be done & that nothing will or can change. Don’t be cynical. Sincerity is a virtue"

# data[].attributes.body
"1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself?

2. Who’s already doing work around this injustice?

3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support & help to them?

4. How can I be constructive?

...You are not needed everywhere, but we are all needed somewhere."

# data[].attributes.body
"So how can you—how will you—lessen suffering where you are? There are times when I feel overwhelmed about what to do, where to start. The problems seem so big & so intractable. In those times, I ask myself a set of questions that serve as guideposts & help to ground me."

# data[].attributes.body
"Once again, here we can learn from Desmond Tutu, who said, “When we look squarely at injustice & get involved, we actually feel less pain, not more, because we overcome the gnawing guilt & despair that festers under our numbness. We clean the wound—our own & others’—& it can finally heal.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"The struggle is eternal, but our energies are limited. Still, it’s important to stay interested in the stories of people who are suffering under the current regime. To turn away from that suffering is tacit complicity with current systems of violence. It is getting used to harm."

# data[].attributes.body
"I don’t wake up every day feeling prepared to confront oppression...looking forward to struggle. Many days I’m annoyed as hell at my fellow human beings & express this to anyone within the sound of 1 of my rants...It isn’t...sustainable to never take a break from the relentlessness of injustice."

# data[].attributes.body
"Turning away from the “news” intermittently is essential for one’s well-being. The people I most admire, like organizer Ella Baker, remind us that “the tribe increases…The struggle is eternal. Somebody else carries on.” These touchstones are also honest about their disappointments and doubts."

# data[].attributes.body
"In order for change and transformation to occur, we must refuse the current order of the world...It means active refusal to become numb to the horror. The renowned poet, writer, and activist Dionne Brand warns, “If I am peaceful in this discomfort, is not peace, / is getting used to harm.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"The key is to take action, however and wherever we can...I love the idea of “little invitations for resistance.” The question...is, What will we make of this moment in history?...We need to build our action muscles. We need to get outside of ourselves and act, both individually and collectively."

# data[].attributes.body
"Indeed, those stories help me to refuel and keep me pushing forward. Perhaps they do for you as well. If you feel alienated from the “me we,” a good remedy is to plug into local mutual aid efforts and other collectivist projects."

# data[].attributes.body
"If we pay attention,...we notice that there are people all around us working right now to lessen suffering by taking action in their communities, using the resources that they have gathered...Alongside stories of war, death-making, cruelty, and inhumanity, there are also ones about compassion."

# data[].attributes.body
"Experiencing the...intentional abandonment by—our governments...during this pandemic has left many of us feeling despondent, increased our fears, and made us feel like passive consumers of news and information. All of these can fuel a sense of helplessness. All can erode our sense of Ubuntu."

# data[].attributes.body
"The outpouring of mutual aid efforts in communities around the world encompasses the “me we,” while the hoarding of vaccines by the Global North, for example, epitomizes the “me me.” Ask yourself whether the global pandemic has increased or diminished your personal sense of Ubuntu."

# data[].attributes.body
"For me, the truth of Tutu’s words is made all the clearer by the response to this global COVID pandemic that we have been trying to live through over the past...years. From the start, the question was whether we would embody a “me we” ethos or a “me me” one. I think that we’ve seen both at play."

# data[].attributes.body
"I love that term—“me we.” He wrote that the “solitary, isolated human being is a contradiction in terms.” All humanity is interconnected and interdependent. Tutu wrote that “the only way we can ever be human is together. The only way we can be free is together.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a courageous and profoundly decent man, passed away in late 2021. Tutu helped to popularize the Zulu concept of Ubuntu as the understanding that “‘a person is a person through other people.’” He used to say that Ubuntu can best be understood as “me we.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"An antidote to the relentless drumbeat of doom is strategic and persistent collective action. In the West, in particular, individualism is prized and often promoted over collectivity and, most importantly, interdependence. Yet, we will not accomplish anything transformational alone. We won’t."

# data[].attributes.body
"Stories of communities of people coming together across differences to help one person keep their business alive. Stories that remind us that, in the words of South African antiapartheid writer and organizer Dennis Brutus, “somehow tenderness survives.”"

# data[].attributes.body
"There are countless stories around the world that can and should buoy our spirits. Stories of kind people doing generous things for years without expecting anything in return. Stories of people who are practicing restorative and transformative justice, often without using those terms."

# data[].attributes.body
"Yes, there is bad news, but it’s not the only news...It’s so important to remember this message during difficult times, lest we become despairing. Despair is a thief. It saps your energy, depletes your time, and robs you of your ability to dream. And we need lots of dreamers and doers right now."

# data[].attributes.body
"If you’re feeling discouraged, alienated, or scared at this moment, I want you to know that you are not alone...We all need more grace...So my invitation...is that you try to look at the current moment from outside of it—...for a little distance from the daily slog."

# data[].attributes.body
"The work before us is...of our ancestors and the work of those who will come after: to relentlessly build new worlds, even on the edge of oblivion, and live in them anyway—together. That work...begins with human connection, human relationships, and reciprocity in struggle. It begins with care."

# data[].attributes.body
"I found these words from Simpson especially grounding: Imperialism and ongoing colonialism have been ending worlds for as long as they have been in existence, and Indigenous and Black peoples have been building worlds and then rebuilding worlds for as long as we have been in existence."

# data[].attributes.body
"I believe in your creativity & in your potential to cast aside the limitations of individualism: the obsession with notoriety, the illusion that our fates are divided. I believe you can fight & continuously build worlds worth fighting for, even as the worlds we have known collapse...around us."

# data[].attributes.body
"I have hope that you will choose to keep feeling the things that are hard to feel, even as people around you may surrender their values. I have hope that you will continue to give a damn, even when it’s hard, and that you will fight for each other. Perhaps I will even see you in the streets."

# data[].attributes.body
"I have hope that you will build reciprocal movements, grounded in care and a regard for life on Earth, that will cultivate hope and give life greater meaning in these times. I have hope that you will rebel against the continued normalization of mass death, human suffering, and annihilation."

# data[].attributes.body
"Many of us are waging acts of care in response to...crises, but far too many...have embraced the status quo...If you are not...looking back on these words as echoes of a tragic past, then I have hope that you may be battling for the world we want, or that you may be on the cusp of doing that work."

# data[].attributes.body
"We were not meant to survive that way...That is not to say that having a loving community erases all...horrors...Like many..., even as I...act against injustice, I also get overwhelmed by the...terror of it...But then I look at Bresha and I remember that we can refuse to leave each other behind."

# data[].attributes.body
"Mentors like Mariame changed my life by inviting me to organize alongside them, valuing my feedback,...& building with me from...mutual care...Today, as a person who has a...loving community of activists..., I feel...for people who are...going it alone,...and blaming themselves when they falter."

# data[].attributes.body
"In my experience, the work of doing justice transforms people, relationships, & the dynamics between people over time. In those transformations, there is a great deal of joy & meaning to be found. I am the person I am today because of the people who chose to build relationships...along the way."

# data[].attributes.body
"In a world that is breaking down our connections, isolating us, and sub-siloing us to death, life-giving relationships are our best hope. The connections that will sustain us will not happen instantly, and some people are heartbroken when a movement space does not provide a sense of...belonging."

# data[].attributes.body
"I never imagined, when I agreed that we needed to form a defense committee to help Bresha, that she and I would one day meet and become close...My friendship with Bresha is an everyday reminder that the work of fighting for other people and a better world can bring rewards we never imagined."

# data[].attributes.body
"Since joining Lifted Voices, Bresha has attended Project NIA’s Youth Abolitionist Institute for young organizers and has trained to become an abortion doula. She is passionate about reproductive justice and, after the fall of Roe, was eager to take action to expand abortion access."

# data[].attributes.body
"It was my honor to be part of such an effort, and Bresha having a future outside of a cage was all the reward any of us had dared hope for. But getting to build a relationship with Bresha,...to laugh at her jokes, to ease her doubts about herself—these were gifts I had not imagined."

# data[].attributes.body
"That thank-you began a conversation between Bresha & me that would go on for years. I was thrilled to hear from this young person who had become...an important part of my life...I had written...pieces about Bresha’s case,...& worked to raise national awareness..., but I never...expected to meet."

# data[].attributes.body
"Upon getting out, she began to read some of the articles and op-eds that had been written about her case. She also came across a video of an action that was co-organized by my collective—Lifted Voices...Bresha was moved by the video and reached out to thank Lifted Voices for the action."

# data[].attributes.body
"Bresha accepted a plea that led to a period of incarceration in a mental health facility. The defense committee raised funds so she could spend...months in the facility of her choosing, rather than a state hospital she...heard horror stories about. On February 4, 2018, Bresha was finally freed."

# data[].attributes.body
"There were walls and bars and in some cases thousands of miles between Bresha and those people, but their existence and their encouragement gave her strength. In late 2016, under tremendous national and even international pressure, the prosecutor opted to charge Bresha as a juvenile after all."

# data[].attributes.body
"No one had intervened to save her from her father, but her new abuser, the carceral state, was being fought. There were people trying to defend her & trying to save her life. It was as though, after years of reaching out for help without anyone grabbing her hand, people were finally reaching back."

# data[].attributes.body
"Bresha’s mental health was deteriorating over the course of...incarceration...We...ramped up...efforts, urging supporters to send Bresha notes of love and support. She would later tell me that the letters and postcards people sent helped her carry on, even on days when she could barely read them"

# data[].attributes.body
"Bresha’s mental health was deteriorating over the course of...incarceration...We...ramped up...efforts, urging supporters to send Bresha notes of love and support. She would later tell me that the letters and postcards people sent helped her carry on, even on days when she could barely read them"

# data[].attributes.body
"We wrote op-eds and held rallies...We also rallied people to send postcards and letters to Bresha and circulated a petition demanding that the charges against her be dropped. Thanks largely to our efforts on social media, the campaign drew national and international attention."

# data[].attributes.body
"In our world, Bresha was charged with murder. The prosecution intended to try her as an adult. Bresha had been robbed of her childhood by her father’s cruelty and violence, and now the state was assuming the abuser’s role and threatening to steal her future as well."

# data[].attributes.body
"In a just world, a loving community would have rallied to meet the needs of Bresha’s family, to ensure she could access healing, and to make whatever changes were necessary to ensure that no child would ever be plunged into a similar hell. But we do not live in that society."

# data[].attributes.body
"In a just society, people would have hung their heads in shame, asking how we could have allowed this child to arrive at such a choice. How could we have failed an abused child, one who begged to be saved, so horribly that she would have to do the unthinkable?"

# data[].attributes.body
"Black women who were faced with the prospect of having their futures stolen by the carceral system because they were willing to defend their...lives against abusive partners. It is essential...to understand that...some people are simply expected to die rather than disrupt the order of things."

# data[].attributes.body
"Defense-committee organizing is a form of mutual aid that embodies...ideas that we have discussed in this book: resisting state violence, refusing to abandon people, and delegitimizing the carceral state’s simplistic conclusions about who is worthy of punishment and who is worthy of life."