Content warning – prison, racism, suicide, self-harm, medical neglect, chronic illness, trauma

This is part four of a workshop that explores herbalism, incarceration and abolition. This particular section introduces abolition (very briefly!) as well as the roles of herbalists in abolitionist movements.

About the workshop: This workshop explores the role of herbalism in supporting prisoners, families and communities affected by incarceration, and herbalist roles in the abolition of these systems of oppression. There are more than 11.5 million people incarcerated worldwide, including a massive 2.2 million in the so-called United States. Most are completely excluded from herbalism yet many can find plants cracking through the concrete. These plants can bring hope, connection and health support to people experiencing the worst of state violence.

In this workshop we will explore the health impacts of incarceration, and look at herbal strategies to support people experiencing traumatic stress and PTSD. We will look at some practical uses of plants commonly found in prison yards and what practicing herbalism in prison can look like. The workshop explores ‘abolition’ as a framework and the role of herbalists within these movements.

Links & resources from this episode

• You can find the workshop videos, PDFs and slides for free at: https://solidarityapothecary.org/product/herbalism-incarceration-abolition-workshop/
• Herbalism, PTSD & Traumatic Stress Course
• Herbalism, PTSD & Traumatic Stress Course Waiting List
• The Prisoner’s Herbal book
• Request a free copy of the Prisoner’s Herbal for someone in prison

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

Support the show

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism podcast with your host Nicole Rose from the Solidarity Apothecary.

This is your place for all things plants and liberation.

Let's get started.

All right, welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

This is the final part in a little series sharing the audio version of a workshop exploring herbalism, incarceration and abolition.

I introduced the workshop in a bit more depth in part one, so please listen to that.

Yeah, this particular section introduces abolition as well as the role of kind of herbalists and abolitionist movements.

Again, like, I've kind of put a disclaimer on every one of these introductions, but this is like such a teeny, teeny, teeny, teeny, teeny little introduction to like a massive area of struggle and learning and a huge field that people have been organizing around for like literally hundreds of years.

And much beyond that, beyond the kind of abolitionist framework, if that makes sense, like in terms of organizing for liberation more broadly, but yeah, and like I've said, you know It was an ambitious workshop in terms of fitting in lots of different types of kind of content and themes.

So yeah, I just want to name that abolition is absolutely Yeah, a massive subject with loads of resources and I share a bunch of them in the kind of online version of the workshop so you're able to sign up and you can watch the videos and you can download slides and see links to like books and things I've mentioned on my site so I encourage you to do that.

Yeah, and also I haven't said this yet but I'm also keen to hear people's feedback on what you've thought of these different parts of the workshop.

And yeah, kind of work that you're doing in the world collecting abolition and herbalism.

I'm about to publish a book about herbalism and state violence, which I'm really excited about, which kind of brings to light like vast amounts of examples of herbal solidarity in practice and people using herbalism in a context, looking at just a few focused areas of state violence, like state repression and prison and border violence and also invasion and occupation and war.

So, yeah, I know, I know again, this is just a teeny, teeny, teeny little introduction but I hope you find it interesting.

And don't forget to watch the workshop online so you can see, like, the actual slides and all the resources and stuff.

Okay.

Take care.

All right.

Now on to the final section, which is like an introduction to abolition.

I'm just Emphasis on introduction.

Again, like, huge topic, like, no time to talk about it.

So, yeah, these are much bigger conversations to have in your community, like, with people you care about, with people you organise with.

And if, you know, you were in the live version of this call, I would be asking you, like, what is abolition?

Like, what does it mean to you?

And getting, kind of, your input.

So Yeah, hopefully you paused me there, but abolition is a noun, you know, the action of abolishing a system, practice or institution, but it's also described as a verb, right, like a doing, like a practice, like it consists of the actions we take to build safety and to tear down harmful institutions.

So yeah, Angela Davis is one of the kind of forefront, like, black radical feminists who've pioneered kind of ideas around abolition for decades, and she writes, An abolitionist approach would require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society.

So, you know, abolition isn't just the struggle to kind of end prisons and destroy prisons and you know It's also a creative practice of building the kind of world that we want because we know We're not gonna just have like the capitalist state be like, yeah, we'll just exist without prisons.

That's fine Like, you know, these systems are absolutely fundamental to how our systems operate.

You know, prisons are like an inherent part of that.

So to kind of abolish prisons, it does mean kind of abolishing everything, right?

Like completely transforming society.

So there's a collective in the UK called Cradle Community.

With a very beloved friend of mine, Kelsey who put together this book during the pandemic called Brick by Brick, How Do We Build a World Without Prisons?

And I really recommend checking it out.

And they write A world without prisons is nothing like the world we live in now.

It is a world built on collective safety and care for all of us.

To build such a world, it is essential that we abolish the prison system and every structure that serves to deprive us of our freedom, safety and dignity.

The global prison abolitionist movement resists all forms of violence and oppression, inviting us to work to transform our relationships with each other and the earth.

And the book's got, like, different chapters about everything under the sun from housing to how do we respond to sexual violence you know, like, just, yeah, amazing kind of array of thoughts and ideas about how we build a world without prisons.

And this is from a slide from a presentation from literally, like, 2014 or something I don't have the original graphics, so I've just kind of cropped it out but in the abolition workshops I used to do, it's really talking about like, how do we build this prison free world, right, like, you know, cultures of care and safety, like, how do we take care of us, how do we respond to sexual violence access to healthcare, you know, how do we support emotional health and healing, access to healthy food, which is the absolute opposite of the prison system.

Anti oppressive cultures that nourish diversity, you know, like what does a world without racism look like, right?

Like ultimately if we're working for abolition, that's what we're working towards.

Access to housing and healthy ecosystems, ability to meet our own economic needs, freedom of movement and educational alternatives.

Okay, so that was like the briefest introduction to abolition ever.

But I think the question on everyone's mind is probably like, how the hell does herbalism fit into this?

Like, what is the role of herbalism in abolitionist movements?

And again, if we were in a group right now, I'd be asking you, like, what do you think?

Like, what are the potential roles for herbalists in movements working for abolition?

Like, what can we do?

And this is the horrible prison in Eastwood Park where my friend died and where my friend Sam is currently incarcerated and every time I visit I see this rose bush and take pictures of it in different seasons.

Okay, so yeah, these are massive questions demanding collective answers and experiments.

I just want to say that we also have to organize and fight like everyone else, right?

It's not like we're just herbalists, like we can also be organizers involved in campaigns against prison expansion, for example, or doing prisoner solidarity work, or posting out prisoner books.

For me, kind of abolition or anarchism means like eradicating all forms of domination, and this includes within herbalism, right?

So talking about white supremacy, talking about cultural appropriation and transphobia and racism, like, this is part of the work.

And I just wanted to say that, like, no conversation about herbalism can really happen with conversations about movements for decolonization, you know, like land back, like redistribution of land indigenous sovereignty, like, I think that's really important and essential, like, should be a heartbeat of herbalism, those struggles.

And yeah, like, we have to challenge the kind of capitalist appropriations of herbalism and the exploitation of plant and human communities.

Okay, and in terms of abolition, like, I put this together for a workshop back in 2020 about herbalism and state violence, but these are just some of the ideas that I've had or that I'm engaged with, that I've been inspired by herbalists around the world, like, doing this kind of work, so.

Yeah, obviously Prisoner Solidarity, like 11 million people worldwide in prisons are excluded from herbalism.

I would love it if all of those people got a copy of the Prisoner's Herbal and were able to practice herbalism in prison and feel connected to plants and making medicine and health autonomy, like how incredible would that be, you know, while we're working to free people.

So herbalists can support people leaving prison and recovering from state violence.

Like I mentioned the power of nervines, like this is where I think we could really offer a lot of collective care.

Herbalists can support anti repression efforts, for example giving packages of care to people who are on trial, different defendants.

Herbalists can support frontline organisers, you know, getting medicines to sites of occupation and resistance.

You know, herbalist street medics, there's like a big kind of field of street medicine, right, and action medic work where people are supporting protests and riots and insurrections.

And you know, herbalists can play a big role in this.

I've mentioned about occupations and sites of resistance, but, you know, like our clinic with Calais, we can offer care to people fleeing state violence at border hotspots, like we did in Ukraine and we do in France.

And, you know, herbalists can support plant communities and we can offer popular education on plant medicine.

And all of this is part of creating a world without prisons, in my opinion.

So I just wanted to end with one of my favourite quotes, which is herbalists should go with the flow, embrace being on the wrong side of capitalism and the law, and put our energies towards establishing decentralised, autonomous, grassroots health networks that empower community self reliance, provide care to those most in need, and reduce the need for people to access conventional medicine.

And you know, if we look at abolition in terms of the prison system and in terms of the health system and state health care and stuff like herbalism has a huge amount to offer in terms of building up alternatives to those systems, you know, and complements to those systems.

So yeah, I just wanted to finish with a really beautiful spotlight on an amazing project called solitary gardens run by this artist here, Jackie Sumell.

And what she does, and she does with many volunteers, is she creates gardens in collaboration with people in solitary confinement.

And those prisoners, like, communicate what they would like in their garden, like, how they would like it to look, the plants they would like to grow, their favourite flowers.

And then the people on the outside make the garden and send them in photos of updates of, you know, how it's looking and things, and it's just, like, such a beautiful project.

They also do lots of other kind of like art installation work and community gardening work to raise awareness about abolition.

They have a project called the Prisoner's Apothecary where they're making medicine.

You can see here these beds are like the size of the cells of some people in prison.

And yeah, some kind of literature here about imagine a landscape without prisons, you know, where they're really like centering prisoner voices.

You know, putting their letters on billboards, for example.

So yeah, I would check out their website, check out their Instagram.

Like, every time I follow them, like, I just see their posts and it just makes me cry, because I just think it is this beautiful example of herbalism and abolition in practice.

Okay, so yeah, if, again, this was participatory right now and not a backup recording, I would be asking people to kind of check out and just share how they found the workshop and what their next step is.

. But yeah, I hope if you're listening, like I really wanted to put together a big resources section and stuff, but just kind of hit my limit with energy with my pregnancy.

But there's tons of information online around abolition, you know, all sorts of reading lists and things.

And yeah, please check out my website for more resources, solidarityapothecary.

org to learn about how I'm trying to connect the dots between sort of state violence and abolition and herbalism.

All right.

Thank you for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the show at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast.