Happy 2025! In lieu of our monthly meeting this evening, we’ll be taking a field trip to the Center for Brooklyn History for a 6:30pm talk with David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan about their new book, City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island.Given our work against the proposed Chinatown megajail, including an action at last year’s Lunar New Year parade, we’re keen to hear about their experiences serving time at Rikers, which is unlikely to close by the legally mandated deadline of August 2027. Jarrod also co-authored the forthcoming Skyscraper Jails about the grassroots campaign to close Rikers, and the nonprofit industrial complex’s subsequent proposal to build four new jails, including the aforementioned Chinatown megajail. (On this note, we also recommend reading Chloë Bass’s recent essay, Why I Refuse to Make Art for Prisons.)
This Wednesday at noon, join members of AAD, NYC Jail Support, and other groups for an action outside of Manhattan Housing Court (111 Centre St)! We’ll be distributing pamphlets about our city’s perverse system of marshals, who earn millions evicting New Yorkers from their homes. Come for hot soup and tea, stay for the conversations!Coinciding with demonstrations in front of other housing courts and marshals’ offices across the city, this action kicks off the opening of a new front in the housing fight by disrupting the eviction machine, building solidarity with New Yorkers facing eviction, contesting state violence, and demanding the right to housing for all.Click here to learn more about city marshals, and the for-profit system of violence that they enforce.
Some of you may have been following recent developments at the Jefferson migrant shelter in Bushwick, where dozens of migrants have been forcibly displaced into freezing temperatures. In response to state cruelty and neglect, Food Fight and other mutual aid organizations have joined forces to provide temporary shelter and support for the displaced migrants.We encourage you to follow Food Fight’s Instagram for updates and ways to help!
Our comrades Friend of a Friend NYC are seeking funds to purchase sleeping bags for our unhoused neighbors in Lower Manhattan — please chip in if you’re able!Plus, a reminder that FoaF always welcomes volunteers for their weekly food distros in Columbus Park (Sundays at 4pm and Tuesdays at 7:30pm).
Graphic courtesy of Friend of a Friend