The Abolitionist’s Field Guide jackie sumell

Seeing through Stone artist jackie sumell's "The Abolitionist's Field Guide"

Everyday practices inspired by the natural world to help us end the cycles of harm and imagine a landscape without prisons.

The Abolitionist’s Field Guide is an interactive workbook and reader that teaches abolitionist strategy through the lived experience of plants, their natural relationships, and the stories they tell. “Sometimes those teachings are direct perceptions, sometimes they are metaphors,” sumell writes. “Abolition, like growing a plant, requires daily attention and care.”

jackie sumell is a multidisciplinary artist and abolitionist whose work is an expression of gratitude for her elders, fueled by relationship to the natural world. Anchored at the intersection of activism, social practice, ritual, and mindfulness for nearly two decades, she has shared this work extensively throughout the world. sumell has been the recipient of residencies and fellowships from the Marguerite Casey Foundation, S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio Fellowship, A Blade of Grass, Robert Rauschenberg Artist-as-Activist Fellowship, Soros Justice Fellowship, Eyebeam Fellowship, Headlands Residency, Schloss Solitude Residency, and more. sumell’s long term collaboration with Herman Wallace was the subject of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Herman’s House and the driving force behind her abolition-centered practices. She is based in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she continues to work on Herman’s House, Solitary Gardens, The Abolitionist’s Apothecary+, and several other community generated, advocacy-based projects.

DETAILS

• Binding: Perfect Bound
• Soft cover
• Dimensions: 8 x .25 x 5.5 in.
• Pages: 96