A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice Book Release Party and (Short!) Discussion with author Katie Tastrom

May 9, 2024 - 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

COME CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF KATIE’S NEW BOOK! THERE WILL BE A BRIEF DISCUSSION AND LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED.

BOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE. ALL ARE WELCOME AND MASKS ARE REQUIRED TO HELP KEEP IT THAT WAY!

A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice  explains the history and theories behind abolition and disability justice in a way that is easy to understand for those new to these concepts yet also gives insights that will be useful to seasoned activists. The book uses extensive research and professional and lived experience to illuminate the way the State uses disability and its power to disable to incarcerate multiply marginalized disabled people, especially those who are queer, trans, Black, or Indigenous.

Because disabled people are much more likely than nondisabled people to be locked up in prisons, jails, and other sites of incarceration, abolitionists, and others critical of carceral systems must incorporate a disability justice perspective into our work. 

A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice gives personal and policy examples of how and why disabled people are disproportionately caught up in the carceral net, and how we can use this information to work toward prison and police abolition more effectively. This book includes practical tools and strategies that will be useful for anyone who cares about disability justice or abolition and explains why we can’t have one without the other.

Praise
A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice is a clear, accessible, and invaluable tool for not only dissecting the depths of disability and criminalization but also illustrating how the fights for disability justice and prison abolition are inextricably linked.”
—Victoria Law, author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women and “Prisons Make Us Safer” & 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration

“Reminding us that abolition and disability justice must be, on a molecular level, grown together, Katie Tastrom offers a manifesto, which is also to say an atlas that leads us deeper into this analysis. Pushing against a world where harms lived by some are reproduced under the promise of safety for others, Tastrom insists that we must dream of more. Working from personal experience and a wide genealogy of abolitionist crip thought, this book is a necessary contribution to our collective study.”
—Eric A. Stanley, author of Atmospheres of Violence: Structuring Antagonism and the Trans/Queer Ungovernable

Can’t make it to the event but want to order the book? You can order it here!