Want to understand what ‘the prison industrial complex’ encompasses, how it interweaves with ‘racial formations of violence’ through police for example, and what an ‘abolition praxis’ can bring forward in order to move from prison focussed ‘reformist-reforms’ to the reconstruction of relations in communities?
In four sessions we will read texts by Ruth Wilson Gilmore written between 1990’s and the present, the readings give an overview of her research and activism around what has become known as ‘The Prison Industrial Complex.’ She offers a geographical grasp of how contemporary racial capitalism operates through an “anti-state state” that answers crises with the organized abandonment of people and environments deemed surplus to requirement. As such she not only introduces us to what is to be abolished, but also with the praxis of abolation as freedom not as a mere principle but as a place (re)produced every day.
Each one teach one, teach-in’s are about getting together to read, talk and think about our contemporary constellation and potential practices that might constitute new forms of life. The first teach-in’s where held by anti-war activist during the Vietnam war. Teach-in’s are meant to be practical, participatory, and oriented toward action. While they often include the mediation of people that are engaged on an everyday basis, either by research, activism, or experience with the issue, collective learning through sharing is the goal.
Each session we invite someone and ask them to mediate the reading, bring in points of reflection and open the conversation. The sessions are not an endeavour of specialists or insiders though, everybody brings their personal knowledge and experience to the floor and we will work towards a shared, although not necessarily consensual, understanding of the issue(s) we are enaging with.
It is advised to read the chapters of each session beforehand, in order for us to discuss and reread parts of the chapter together during the session. The text are in English, English will be the main language of conversation but open to contribute in other languages.
Through the teach-in’s That Might Be Right will build up a public library around what is called primary accumulation — the historical and continuous expropriation of people from common land, resources and relations (See — Reconstituting Geographies)
Concept:That Might Be Right
Design:D-E-A-L and Sophia Holst
Hosted by: Beursschouwburg
