On The Eve of Abolition

Greetings!

My days are like Neva’s. I am an abolitionist. We plan. We visit prisoners. We gather community. We share thoughts made clandestine. We move through each moment fully aware of the risk. Threats of punishment including death accompany every single word that is shared between us, those inside and those outside. This story is both compass and companion: empowering us to see and imagine the walls falling and the people rising.

It is amazing to see our abolitionist future, imagined so vividly brought to life on stage. Prison Radio traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Teatro de la Universidad de Puerto Rico seeking inspiration and connection.

The arts have the power, the magic, to realize freedom – insurgent imagination stretches the bars of the present to draw blueprints of worlds that will exist and must exist.

 “On the Eve of Abolition,” by the AgitArte is that roadmap. It’s the plan.

“On the Eve of Abolition” is an evocative glimpse into the future. A cantastoria which throws off empire, emerges from a liberated Caribbean, and takes us enroute to free political prisoners awaiting execution in the last super maximum security prison in America.

Salamanquesa, Neva, Tanco, Imani, Red and Atsila narrate a quest for indigenous survival set in 2047. Sitting in the audience, accompanied and inspired by the Alianza Antilla and the Vejigantes, I can, for the very first time, glimpse a path to a future. This story is both compass and companion: empowering us to see and imagine the walls falling and the people rising.

This play is steeped in the knowledge of three centuries of war waged to keep the indigenous from knowing freedom. It is patient. It builds and gathers. It clarifies intentions. Drawing courage from historical resistance. It culminates with the launch of a risky, ambitious and successful plan.

Papel Machete workshopped this bilingual script with Prison Radio correspondents who are prisoners of empire and whose words appear in the play: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Krystal Clark, Comrade Pitt (Peter Mukuria) and Leonard Peltier.



The packed to capacity live performances have thrown a bright white hot spotlight and a lifeline inside to those at SCI Mahanoy, DPSCS Jessup, Women’s Huron Valley and BOP Coleman. Actions and material created by Papel Machete: words, recorded poems, letters, phone calls, postcards, memories, and even swag create a connection that the imperialists never wanted our hearts and minds to obtain.

Please consider supporting us and AgitArte. Consider bring this production to Philadelphia and beyond! AgitArte

When We Love, We Win

When We Survive, We Win

Cuando luchamos ganamos, When We Fight, We Win

Noel Hanrahan Esq. P.I.,

Legal Director, Redwood Justice Fund

415-648-4505

Tax id 68-0334309

PO Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94141

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