Patrisse Cullors A call to action from Black Lives Matter co-founder

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WordsPatrisse Cullors

Defund the police so Black children can live long lives.

Defund the police so that we can support mental health infrastructure.

Defund the police so that we can end the criminalization of homelessness.

Defund the police so that we can support those at the margins.

Defund the police so that we can envision a world where we have an economy of care.

Defund the police so that we can get rid of the economy of punishment.

Defund the police so that we can stop the militarization of our communities.

Defund the police so that we can lead with love.

Defund the police so that we can smash the patriarchy.

Defund the police so that we can be free.

Artist, organizer, educator, and popular public speaker, Patrisse Cullors is a Los Angeles native and Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network and Founder of grassroots Los Angeles based organization Dignity and Power Now. Cullors’ work for Black Lives Matter recently received recognition in TIME magazine’s 2020 100 Women of the Year project. Cullors is a New York Times bestselling author of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (2018). She is also the Faculty Director at Arizona’s Prescott College of a new Social and Environmental Arts Practice MFA program that she has developed. In 2019, Patrisse joined Freeform’s Good Trouble Season two as a staff writer and actor. She has continued writing for its third season. For the last 20 years, Cullors has been on the frontlines of criminal justice reform and led Reform LA Jails’ “Yes on R” campaign, a ballot initiative that passed by a 71% landslide victory in March 2020. Patrisse’s work to decarcerate and affirm human dignity continues as she joins The Justice Collaborative team as a Senior Advisor.

Illustration by Noa Denmon.

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