Spring 2021 Carceral Studies Consortium micro-grant recipients, aurelius francisco and Erin Simpson, have begun the process of meeting with and educating local communities on the social issues of carceral feminism. Read on for an update and statement from aurelius on the recent progress of their project (Mar. 2022).
Against Carceral Feminism Oklahoma is a collective of survivors, organizers, advocates, educators, and community members invested in providing safety and liberation for all marginalized groups. Survivors of gender-based violence are too often used to uphold the carceral system in Oklahoma – this collective serves as an intervention to end gender-based violence and all other forms of violence without a reliance on policing, prisons, surveillance, and other carceral tools.
In March of 2021 Against Carceral Feminism Oklahoma (ACF OK) had our first working group meeting with seven community leaders in Oklahoma who worked in different capacities with organizations including Foundation for Liberating Minds, Dream Action OK, ACLU OK, Black Lives Matter OKC, and Freedom Oklahoma. During our first few meetings we identified numerous areas for an abolitionist intervention within the Oklahoma socio-political landscape and built out the purpose and vision of ACF OK.
We coordinated our first community conversation in late April of 2021 that featured a few of our members, Nicole McAfee, Kelli Pyron Alvarez, AC Facci, and myself to discuss the purpose of this group, to provide some insight into the issue of carceral feminism and the ways Oklahomans can join this work. This first event was extremely energizing as the attendance and support from our communities was profound.
From there we organized a monthly Collective Action and Learning Space to continue educating our community on the many intersecting social issues of carceral feminism and to take action. During the first space we did some collective vision mapping (pictured in the gallery below) which laid out what we wanted to see from this work and how we wanted to engage as a broader coalition of community members fighting for this just cause. The outcome of that initial visioning process can be seen below.
In September of 2021 we organized another slate of Community Conversations in an attempt to prepare our communities for upcoming defund campaigns by reflecting on past campaigns, positing that #DefundThePolice is a survivor-led, violence prevention strategy. This surfaced in three events: Lessons from Police Divestment Campaigns in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Norman featuring community organizers and activists from each city who are leading the grassroots work towards a police free future in their respective cities.
A goal that raised to the top from our initial Collective Action Space was the need for an accessible resource that unpacked and contextualized carceral feminism in Oklahoma. The ACF OK working group continues to churn away at writing and researching towards creating a holistic resource that I will be excited to share in the coming months as a tool of political education that pushes readers to action.
This work will continue to grow and take shape as we move along this journey working in this deeply harmful society to build something deeply beautiful in its ruins. I am incredibly proud of the work and impact ACF OK has had to this point and hope to continue to see shifts in the ways Oklahomans across fields discuss addressing gender-based violence and the carceral system; and just as importantly for shifts in actions towards transformation rather than punishment and exploitation.
I encourage you to commit to this work by reading and signing on and to reach out if you are interested in collaborating with us.
All power to the people,
aurelius francisco, Co-Founder & Co-Executive Director of Foundation for Liberating Minds
Excerpted from the project proposal submitted to the OU Carceral Studies Consortium in Spring 2021 by Erin Simpson and aurelius francisco, prior to the start of the project.
This project is a political education and advocacy initiative and collaborative between OU academic departments and organizations and community-based organizations across the state of Oklahoma interested in the project of transforming the prison industrial complex (PIC) in the state of Oklahoma and tackling the most pressing issues divulging from a reliance on punishment and incarceration.
In sum, this large-scale project will serve as a catalyst to move away from the criminal punishment system and allow for meaningful reforms in the future to not be hamstrung by carceral logic. Success will be measured in the number of people reached, both through marketing tools and in events and trainings, and seen in gender-based violence organizations pledging to no longer propagate with carceral institutions. As well as in campaign wins shining light on criminalized survivors and their eventual release.
For more information about Against Carceral Feminism visit the Foundation for Liberating Minds.
Editor’s Note: The OU Carceral Studies Consortium is led by its core board members, including Angela Person (acting chair, Architecture), Connie Chapple (incoming director, Sociology), Nancy Snow (Philosophy), Stephanie Pilat (Architecture), and Marjorie Callahan (Architecture), with support from Matt Bejar (graduate fellow, Sociology).
The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
