Audio Interference 77.6: Archiving Abolition—A Quarter of a Century

Hello comrades,

In this episode, we hear “A Quarter of a Century,” a song by Ivie, a comrade on the inside whose story is uplifted by Survived and Punished. It references her campaign to free herself from a 25 to life sentence and was recorded over the phone from Bedford Hills prison, a maximum security correctional facility in Bedford Hills, NY. In the middle of the song, you’ll hear an accompanying rap by another comrade, Sassi, who is also incarcerated at Bedford Hills. Click here to read the song lyrics.

The episode stems from a collaboration with Survived and Punished New York, a grassroots, abolitionist group that works to eradicate the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the culture of violence that contributes to it.

Prison walls create barriers to communication. Through our collaboration, we’re bridging this information gap by sharing the experiences of folks on the inside with those on the outside, as well as archiving Survived & Punished’s organizing strategies to free all who are incarcerated.

A huge thank you to Ivie and Sassi for sharing their song with us. We’d also like to thank Lae Sway, Yves Tong Nguyen, Heena, Zoe Vongtau, Red Schulte, Martina Abrahams Ilunga, and Mariah Hill, along with everyone else at Survived & Punished, for working with us on this episode. To learn more about Survived and Punished, visit their website, www.survivedandpunishedny.org.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to listen to the other responses from folks inside that are part of this series. We also published an in-depth interview with folks from Survived & Punished about their work. To listen, find us on itunes, stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts: www.audiointerference.org

In solidarity,
Audio Interference

Produced by Interference Archive.