Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, and the subsequent calls for defunding and abolishing police departments around the country, more and more people are imagining new possibilities, and committing to the work of making those possibilities real.

That work will include more protest, policy work, shifting resources, and leveraging power. It will also include education (popular, political, and otherwise). Of course, “reading books and having conversations” is not everything that needs to happen. But it does need to happen, especially in a moment where millions of people are fundamentally rethinking what policies are “common sense,” what policies are “radical,” and what policies they will commit to actively organizing around.

How might we bring these conversations into spaces in which they’re not already happening? How can we integrate them into our curricula, into our clubs and organizations, into our social media platforms, and beyond?

I think these are important questions. So for people who are interested or already engaged in that kind of education work, here are three books, three articles, and three poems I would recommend. I’m using the 3/3/3 format because there are hundreds of resources I want to share here, but I also know that can be overwhelming. Hopefully these can be starting points:

THREE BOOKS

• Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
• The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale – Free E-book
• Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States (A Truthout Collection) – Free E-book

There are many other books to recommend, but I’m choosing these three because they’re relatively short, punchy, and accessible. Angela Davis is a foundational figure in the modern abolitionist movement, and even though the focus in this moment is on police, it’s important that we all step back and make the connections to the broader prison-industrial complex, and Are Prisons Obsolete? is the perfect text for that. Vitale’s book is relentless and exhaustive in its critique of what police are and how they function, while also offering many concrete alternatives. And the Truthout anthology is just full of good writing and important perspectives, featuring writers like Alicia Garza, Victoria Law, Ejeris Dixon, and more. Find more book recommendations here.

THREE ARTICLES

• Minneapolis Had This Coming by Justin Ellis
• Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police by Mariame Kaba
• What are we talking about when we talk about “a police-free future?” by MPD150

Again, there has been a wealth of writing over the past few weeks about policing, abolition, Minneapolis, and beyond. I’m choosing these three for how they work together. Ellis’ piece provides vital context and history. Kaba’s piece makes the case for abolition as eloquently as anything I’ve ever read. And local organization MPD150 shares some thoughts and talking points about what the phrase “a police-free future” actually might entail, in practice. Find more article recommendations here.

THREE POEMS

1. Could We Please Give the Police Departments to the Grandmothers by Junauda Petrus (text)

2. Alternate Heaven for Black Boys by Danez Smith (see also the text of summer, somewhere here)

3. Looks like the soundcloud link for this one is down, but here’s Field Trip to the Museum of Human History by Franny Choi

Why these three poems? Because I think one function of poetry, and art in general, is to help us imagine. It can be easy to write off “imagination” as a lesser part of the work, but I’d argue that it’s central. The challenge before us isn’t just to change the laws and policies; it is to tell the story of the world those changes will create, to mobilize, and to sustain this movement.

These aren’t just three poems about racism, or even about policing- they’re more specifically structured around a kind of visionary, world-building impulse that is incredibly valuable right now. The first two explicitly reckon with what a world without police might look like; Danez’s poem is different, of course, but shares that call to imagine another world.

I’m reminded of two quotes here: adrienne maree brown wrote, “I often feel I am trapped inside someone’ else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.” James Baldwin wrote, “The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.”

I’ve already shared it a couple times, but the “Resources” page at MPD150 has so many incredible links. I hope my post here can be a first step for some people, and that that link can be a second step. Either way, let’s keep walking.

A closing thought: I haven’t been actively promoting my own work over the past few weeks, for reasons that I hope are obvious. But this is an issue I’ve worked on, and policing’s connection to white supremacy and authoritarianism is something I’ve written a lot about. For anyone interested, a selection of poems and songs: Police Make the Best Poets, How to Explain White Supremacy to a White Supremacist, Quicksand, One Bad Cop, and The Hero.