In 1951, the Sojourners for Truth and Justice wrote ‘A Call to Negro Women’ to protest the violence, racism, and sexism that Black women experience. Around 130 Black women joined them in Washington, DC to demand justice, safety, and freedom. In this zine, Ashley Farmer and I write essays about the significance of the Sojourners for Truth and Justice in the development of Black feminism and the legacy of Black women freedom fighters. The zine was designed by Jordan De Loach.  The zine can be viewed online here.

For those who want to download the zine and share it with others, I only ask that you make sure to credit me for it. You can access it for downloading here. If you want to read the original Call to Negro Women, you can here.

In July 2019, I asked for submissions on Facebook and Twitter in response to the following question:

“When you’ve felt at your lowest, was there a piece of advice, a quote, a poem, an excerpt from a book that someone shared with you that was a lifeline? What was it?”

I also requested contributions from incarcerated people as part of a letter writing event hosted by Survived and Punished NY in August. In all, I received 130 contributions. They were all wonderful and so very moving. I reached out to my friend Hana for help. Hana read through everything and selected some submissions to include in the zine.

I also asked some friends if they would create visual art in response to the contributions. They responded with beautiful pieces of art.

This version of the “Lifeline Zine” was designed by Jett Bachman and a copy will be mailed to all contributors. In addition, other incarcerated people beyond those who contributed can request a copy from Survived and Punished NY and it will be mailed to them.

You can read the digital version of the zine here.
The print version is here. Feel free to print and share the zine with your communities.

I am incredibly grateful to all of the contributors to this zine, to Jett and Max for designing two different versions, and to Hana for pulling it all together.

“White People Hate Protests” has been in the works for a couple of years. I, like many of you, have been soooooo annoyed and tired of revisionist history about public support of protest, particularly among white folks. It continues to be mentioned time and again that before his assassination Dr. King who is CONSTANTLY invoked by some white people as the most magical of Negroes today was one of the most HATED people in the U.S. This gets mentioned often as a rebuttal to claims made especially by white moderates that they wish everyone would “just act like King” so that they (white moderates) could then comfortably “support” their causes. This is pretty much bullshit.

So last year, I finally had enough. I posted on Facebook that I would welcome support from anyone who wanted to help me to create a small zine titled “White People Hate Protests.” A couple of people reached out and offered their help. First, Simon Daniel helped me by researching some public opinion polls from the 1960s which I used in this publication. Next, Dr. Carolyn Chernoff offered her help by writing an introduction and also doing the layout for the zine. Dr. Tamara Nopper and Josh Begley read this zine at various stages and offered helpful feedback. Finally, Kelly Hayes agreed (on very short notice) to offer some closing thoughts for the zine. My sincere gratitude to all of them.

While this zine was a team effort, all of the errors and mistakes are mine. So whatever you’re unhappy with, take it up with me.

I expect that no one who is white is going to come at me with “Not All White People.” I know this because this zine is of course generalizing AND is a particular statement on whiteness and white supremacy. I hope that white people will share this with other white people. I think that it can be used as a conversation starter, as a teaching tool, as consciousness-raising etc…

While I conceived this zine with white people in mind as an audience, I believe that everyone would appreciate its contents. We’ve made the publication available in two formats: one that can be easily viewed online and a booklet that can be printed. Feel free to print copies of this and leave them in public spaces in your communities including your places of worship, schools, libraries, supermarkets, everywhere.  I have no illusions that everyone will fully appreciate that protests are always unpopular but I do hope that more people will after reading this zine.

Here’s the link to access the zine: https://tinyurl.com/whiteshateprotests . You can also CLICK HERE to access it.

Please share it far and wide.

UPDATE (December 14, 2019): I have heard via email from the author of this poem, CarolJean Kier.

I was so touched and delighted to hear that my poem, “No Lady, Prison Didn’t Improve me None’ is resonating with a younger generation.
I am the seventy-five year old author of this poem and worked for several years with Chicago Connections, a prisoner support group.The group was active in Chicago in the late 1960s.  This poem first appeared in a feminist publication, Black Maria which, I believe, was printed in River Forest Illinois.  The Seed found and reprinted it as “anonymous.” I wish that I could hear your delivery and hope that you will attribute it to me.
Many thanks,
CarolJean Kier

ORIGINAL POST: Many years ago, I read a poem written by a person incarcerated in an Illinois women’s prison. The untitled poem was written in the mid-70s by an anonymous prisoner and published in a now-defunct newspaper called the Chicago Seed in 1981. It really stayed with me when I read it and I decided to publish the poem on this blog in 2014.

No Lady
Prison didn’t improve me none.
There was ten of us girls in the county jail
five white, five black awaitin’ trial for sellin shit.
The white girls, they all on probation.
Us black girls, we all go to Dwight. Me, three months gone.

I’ve sometimes read the poem out loud when I’ve given talks about the evolution of the prison industrial complex. It’s an excellent text to use with young people to discuss what prison was like in the 1970s and what it’s still like today.

A couple of years ago, I decided that it would be wonderful to create a zine of the poem that could be shared with current incarcerated people and others who might be interested. Last year, Neta Bomani, a young artist who I connected with on Twitter, offered to help by making a zine.

Today, I’m happy to share “No Lady” with everyone who would like to make it available in their communities. I am particularly hopeful that those who have connections with people in women’s prisons will make copies to share with them. Both Neta and I hope that the zine will travel across the walls. This is why we produced this publication.

by Neta Bomani (2018)

Three things:

1. If you share the zine online or elsewhere, please attribute it to Prison Culture and to Neta Bomani (designer).
2. If you mail copies to prisoners, please let us know at [email protected]. We want to track the reach of the publication.
3. I plan to make copies of this zine available to people incarcerated in New York State prisons. If you would like to help cover printing and mailing costs, you can contribute to my Paypal here. All support is appreciated.

You can download two versions of the zine below:

1. Printable Version
2. Web-Friendly Version to View Online

My sincere gratitude to Neta for their partnership and beautiful work. Please help that work reach incarcerated people. Also check out more of Neta’s work on their website and connect with Neta if you have paid work and commissions.