February Newsletter Template
February Newsletter
Letter From a Collective Editor
“Why pen-paling?”
This editorial is for anyone like me who's ever sat in their office job surrounded by cubicles year after year, and wished they could do something meaningful about the latest alarming news headlines. “But I'm too busy.” “I can't afford to make donations.” “Nothing I could do as an individual would make any difference.” “How would I even start?” “I'm not an activist.” This frame of mind feels like a common by-product of modern life, and the modern workplace: we’re dispensable, isolated, powerless.
The thing about pen-paling is that there is a huge return on investment of time and energy. Yes, that one letter makes a big difference in a person's life. It's a win-win: my penpals and I both benefit from this two-way communication. It's both of us coming together to fight for what we believe in: human rights, human dignity, the value of community over profits.
This morning, a headline read that up to 50% of employee positions at the National Science Foundation are being eliminated. This is in addition to headlines last month about tax-payer funded data being removed and positions being eliminated, sometimes unlawfully, at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, USAID, NASA, the National Weather Service, NOAA, and more. My background is in the sciences, but I don't feel hopeless in the face of these changes. I don't feel unprepared. This is in part a result of my experience of being a member of the Letters for Liberation community these past years, where no one is dispensable, everyone’s contributions make a real impact, and we are all stronger together.
Which brings me to my second point about “Why pen-paling?” Historically, during repressive political regimes, free press and intellectuals are targeted, for example, by criminalizing acts that used to not be criminal, such as protesting. By coming together with the most vulnerable populations that have fewest protected rights, such as incarcerated people and refugees, we are holding the line of standards for treatment of all people in the US. Aligning ourselves with community-led social justice groups like Letters for Liberation is especially strategic in resisting the erosion of basic civil rights.
I'm delighted to conclude this note by sharing with you some of the highlights about my interactions with my penpals. My penpal Allen is an incredible writer. He's written several short novellas while incarcerated that read like Black James Bond of Kansas City, and he's trusted me to help him get his writing published online as e-books. Benny has genuinely become a friend. His letters never fail to make me laugh. It's an honor to write a letter of support for his parole application.
Below is a papercraft vase of flowers made by my penpal Joseph and his friend Brian. Together we three collaborated on a website to send custom papercraft flower vases to people. The website also accepted donations to their commissary fund, which buys essentials like toothpaste, and amenities that make life more humane while incarcerated. Brian and Joseph live in separate prisons now, so the papercraft website is offline, but they still ask about each other and I pass on their greetings to each other.
Yesterday, we had the All-Hands meeting for Letters for Liberation, and I was reminded of how the individuals and the organization itself are strong, well-informed, and committed to inclusivity and accountability. I hope this note finds the people that need it; earnest people that are feeling an urgent need to come together to take some meaningful actions in support of vulnerable communities. In my experience, participating in Letters for Liberation is a great way to act on that need.
—Your February editor
Anon
Art From The Inside
Papercraft vase and flowers made by inside penpals Joseph and Brian.
Here’s What’s Up This Month
Meetings
Refer to the calendar website, Slack, and Instagram for any schedule adjustments
New Pen Pal Orientation
Whether you’ve never been matched with a pen pal, want a refresher, or want to invite a friend to join the collective, you’re welcome at orientation meetings! If you can’t make these dates, please send us an email. We can often make small group meetings at different times happen.
Monday, March 10th at 6 pm Eastern
Tuesday, March 18th at 8 pm Eastern
Monday, March 24th at 6 pm Eastern
Check our calendar for the most up-to-date times and meeting links
Penpals Backend Working Group Meeting- Tuesday, March 11th at 8:30 pm Eastern/5:30 Pacific at this zoom link
Book Club is planning to read The Parable of the Sower, starting on Tuesday, March 11 at 7:30pm ET. They’ll meet weekly on Tuesdays after that— see the #bookclub channel on Slack for details.
Volunteer
From the All-Hands meeting this month, here is an up-to-date list of volunteer opportunities / requests for help within Letters for Liberation. Contact us on Slack or via email below to find out more.
— Guest editor for newsletter (guest edit one issue; templates and guidance available).
— New outside penpal orientation hosts, esp Saturdays (there's a script and training)
— Social media coordinators (any platform)
— Volunteer to send out acknowledgement letters to new penpals (templates and addresses etc provided)
— Help to change over old abolitionapostles email accounts to new email (guidance available)
Resources
From the excellent @prisonculture.bsky.social, a guide for Some Actions that are not Protesting or Voting.
These next two resources seemed fitting as a timely reminder of the importance of independent bookstores, libraries, and independent media as the US government is removing massive amounts of data from federal websites this month:
Local Spotlight: Coming to you from Kansas City, Missouri, The Kansas City Defender is a digital newspaper and a nation-wide movement by and for Black people:
“We are a Black nonprofit community media platform employing innovative digital and community-building strategies to engage Gen Z and Millennials across the midwest… We continue to prioritize our cultural programs as much as, or more than our news coverage.” Subscribe (free or paid), and check out their excellent Defender’s Handbook of resources, including this 14-week curriculum on prison abolition.
MassiveBookshop provides free books, including shipping, to incarcerated people. You can also shop here for your own books, and the proceeds go to bail funds.
These next three resources are for immigrants, refugees, and allies to exercise their rights in resisting unlawful deportation and detention:
Printable Red Cards: “All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The ILRC’s Red Cards help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations, such as when ICE agents go to a home.”
A preparedness plan for families with mixed immigration status.
ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project’s Know Your Rights guide is a comprehensive resource than can walk immigrants and their families through different scenarios and concepts.
Support
We accept donations via OpenCollective, where you can view details of our expenses. More details on our webpage.
Pen Pal Spotlight
My inside pen pals and I started a book review website in 2022. They write reviews of books they’ve read, and I share the reviews online for the general public. A companion website (Bookshop.org) pays 10% commissions through affiliate links of any book sales that are generated through their book reviews, while another 10% goes towards independent book stores. We haven’t generated any sales commissions yet, but it’s still a nice way to connect over our shared love of books, and maybe be a point of entry for the general public that might be curious about becoming a pen pal.
Here is our website, called Inside Reads. Feel free to share.
Inside Reads is open to any inside penpals that want to write book reviews and share them online. For details, send a note via Slack or email with your contact info.
Abolitionist News
After 50 years of incarceration, American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier had his life sentence commuted by President Biden.
Political Education
These links aren’t specifically about prison abolition, but peeking into historical and contemporary acts of resistance and solidarity at the edges of governance.
Free documentary on the Australian punk band from the 1970’s: The Saints.
They defied authoritarianism in their local communities, and independently helped create a new global genre of anti-establishment music and culture.
In this month’s issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, two historians weigh in on how competitive authoritarianism has taken root in many democracies, and how civic society is a critical source of democratic resilience.
Michael Lewis (The Big Short, Moneyball) has a podcast, ‘Against the Rules’, that’s both informative and optimistic. Some favorite episodes:
Baby Judge School: a country newly freed from a long-standing dictatorship needed to relearn how to train judges to exercise independence in court decisions.
Six Levels Down: one small company figured out how to get the American health insurance system to work for patients.
The FiveFour podcast offering critical (and colorful) commentary by lawyers about recent US Supreme Court decisions.
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln was not always an abolitionist. This scholarly biography brings to life his years leading up to the civil war, and how the abolitionist movement grew and evolved. My favorite part was how effective it was for local people to talk to one another and create a grass-roots movement that effectively moved the Overton window.
Disturbing the Peace: a biography through interviews. Everyone knows about the actor and comedian that became president of Ukraine. But before Zelinskyy, there was Vaclav Havel: a Czech playwright, when local theater was the equivalent to TikTok for the resistance. Havel was imprisoned during the Soviet occupation, and later elected president of Czechoslovakia. The local Czech gangs allied with their natural enemies, the Czech cops, to work together and subvert the Soviet occupation. They swapped all the street signs, for example, so only locals could find their way around. Havel credited the rock albums by Velvet Underground for his decision to run for president, and later became friends with Lou Reed.
Let’s Discuss!
Something to spark conversation with your penpal. Funny, random, serious, anything! This prompt will also be posted to Slack, Instagram, Twitter (X), and Facebook. Share your answer and your penpal’s answer with us there, if you want.
What’s something that you’re proud of? Could be big or small; well-known or unknown to others.
Connect
Email: AbolitionApostles@gmail.com