Growing Abolition with Joseph Capehart

WGRL NYC

Joseph Capehart is a poet and educator pushing the needle when they can and flipping the table when they must. Black, queer, and concerned with freedom, they are the founder of The Garden, an abolitionist bookstore and community well in Brooklyn.

This conversation is part of a collaboration with our mentor, artist and instigator jackie sumell and MoMA PS1 which resulted in an exhibition at PS1 entitled “Freedom to Grow“.

In the Summer of 2021 the Growing Abolition class produced a series of four podcasts delving into Abolitionist Worldview as part of the course work.
In the wider project we explored:
What can plants teach us about prison abolition, healing, and expanding our horizons of possibility? What would a world look like in which we all have what we need, with networks of safety and support created by and for our communities? How can we put abolition into daily practice, as a process of creating and nurturing alternatives to the structures that harm us?