Move It Forward
20 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 46 ratingsWe are the Amistad Law Project, a small grassroots public interest law center and organizing project in the city of Philadelphia. We advocate for the human rights of people adversely impacted by the system, including people behind prison walls. Welcome to our monthly podcast where we’ll be lifting up the voices of our community members in the struggle for healthier and safer communities. By sharing perspectives you won’t normally hear on mainstream media platforms, we’re building our own platforms, raising our own voices, and telling our own stories, the way they need to be told. The plot thickens constantly in our struggle, and we have to push through the thickness, to move the plot forward towards change. We hope you’ll join us in moving it forward.
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Episodes
Alternatives Pt 2: Getting to the Roots of Violence
January 31, 2024 13:00 - 1 hour - 85.5 MBIn this final episode of Move It Forward, we’ll conclude our conversation on community violence prevention, exploring alternatives to policing and prosecution that are focused on addressing the systemic factors which give rise to violence. Throughout this season, we’ve heard from people impacted by gun violence and homicide about the influences of the overlapping crises of poverty and wealth inequality. Decades of divestment from education, health care, and public spaces has gone hand in h...
Alternatives Part 1: Mediation and Mentorship
August 29, 2023 13:00 - 47 minutes - 65.7 MBThroughout this season, we have shared a quite a bit of political history and a number of personal stories that have illustrated the failures of policing and incarceration. Today we’re kicking off a two part conversation on the alternatives, delving even deeper into the work of the violence prevention projects we have featured consistently throughout this season. In this episode, we’ll learn more about the leaders in this work and the processes of mentorship and mediation that they have de...
The Limits of American Criminal Justice Part 2: Prisons and Prosecution
June 05, 2023 12:00 - 41 minutes - 56.6 MBWe’re back again with more exploration of our criminal justice system. In the first part of this conversation, we looked at policing. In this episode, we’re focusing on prisons and prosecution. There has been a lot of attention given in the past several years to police reform but there has been less focus on how we can change prosecution and incarceration. In this episode, you’ll hear from Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on some of the approaches his office has taken to reduce ...
The Limits of American Criminal Justice Part 1: Police
April 27, 2023 11:00 - 45 minutes - 62.6 MBThe recent resurgence of gun violence and homicide shows the deep failures in our approach to criminal justice. But instead of investing in new strategies, politicians are pushing us to respond with the same methods of policing and incarceration that we’ve been using for decades. In the first part of this conversation on our justice system’s approach to this crisis, we’ll take a close look at policing. We’ll explore its history, from the connections to slavery to the lineage of police vio...
Drugs and Guns: How Violence Intersects with the Drug Economy
February 08, 2023 13:00 - 53 minutes - 73.3 MBUS media and policymakers have long focused on the connection between violence and the drug economy. Since the 70s, the War On Drugs has shaped our approach to these overlapping crises, putting millions of people behind bars and tripling the number of Americans in prison. Today, cities like Philadelphia are facing levels of gun violence we haven’t seen since the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80s and early 90s. In this episode, we’re looking at the economic and political factors that have sh...
Aftermath: Grief and Life After Losing a Loved One to Gun Violence
November 29, 2022 12:00 - 40 minutes - 56.1 MBThis episode, we’re talking to people who have lost loved ones to homicide about those experiences and what happened afterwards, both immediately and over a longer period of time. There’s a lot of pain and grief here. For every person who is murdered, there is a family, a friend group, a community who feel that loss. The numbers – over 500 people murdered in 2021 alone – can make it hard to think about the individual stories of those victims. In this episode, we’re taking some time to sit w...
Staring Down the Barrel: What Happened to Our Communities when Gun Control Failed
October 13, 2022 12:00 - 37 minutes - 51.4 MBThis episode, we’re taking a closer look at guns. The vast majority of murders in this country are committed with firearms. We can’t have a meaningful conversation about murders and gun violence without talking about how these guns make their way to our streets. With more being bought now than ever before in the United States, we spoke to people who have lost loved ones about what the proliferation of guns means for our communities. Guests include Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Kras...
Staring Down the Barrel: What Happened to Our Communities when Gun Control Failed
October 13, 2022 12:00 - 37 minutes - 51.4 MBThis episode, we’re taking a closer look at guns. The vast majority of murders in this country are committed with firearms. We can’t have a meaningful conversation about murders and gun violence without talking about how these guns make their way to our streets. With more being bought now than ever before in the United States, we spoke to people who have lost loved ones about what the proliferation of guns means for our communities. Guests include Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Kras...
Proximity: People Impacted by Gun Violence Explain the Crisis
July 25, 2022 13:00 - 46 minutes - 63.3 MBWhat is at the root of violence in the United States? In this episode, we speak to people with close connections to gun violence about what they think causes it and talk about the impact of seeing great wealth while living in poverty. The richest 1% in the US controls about 40% of the nation’s wealth. Could this be why the U.S. has more murders than other wealthy nations? We spoke to people from neighborhoods impacted by violence - some who have committed violent acts in the past - and peopl...
Untrue Crime: How Sensationalism Distorts Our Sense of Safety
June 13, 2022 11:00 - 40 minutes - 55.8 MBAre you a fan of true crime? From podcasts, books, documentaries, and Netflix series, our society is consumed with ‘juicy’ horror stories of crime. Whether it’s a story about serial killers or cold-blooded killings, people are hungry for more. In this episode of Move It Forward, we look at the genre of true crime with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika and explore its history, our fascination with it, and the realities of crime and harm on the streets. Tune in to learn more about how institutional an...
When Inequality Feeds Violence, Exploring the Roots of a Crisis
May 12, 2022 11:00 - 36 minutes - 49.8 MBThere’s talk all over the country about the rise in gun violence and homicide. While nightly news headlines sensationalize a crisis, there is little time given to explore what is behind the rise in violence and what people are trying to do to address it. In Philly alone, over 560 people were murdered, making 2021 the city’s worst year on record. Today we’re kicking off a season long focus on this issue — from the personal to the political we’re exploring the impact on both those who have c...
Care Not Cops: Mental Health Responses for Our Communities
April 22, 2021 09:00 - 50 minutes - 47.9 MBWhat is mental health? How can we be more whole and how can we advocate for systems that help all of our community members heal? In this episode, we look at mental health with two practitioners -- Iresha Picot and Jacqui Johnson. Listen to their conversation that ranges from trauma to mental health crisis response to hip-hop. Learn about the policy changes that could make city services more just and what we all need to be well.
Care Not Cops: Mental Health Responses for Our Communities
April 22, 2021 09:00 - 50 minutes - 47.9 MBWhat is mental health? How can we be more whole and how can we advocate for systems that help all of our community members heal? In this episode, we look at mental health with two practitioners -- Iresha Picot and Jacqui Johnson. Listen to their conversation that ranges from trauma to mental health crisis response to hip-hop. Learn about the policy changes that could make city services more just and what we all need to be well.
When Life Means Death
March 15, 2021 09:00 - 35 minutes - 33.7 MBHow can we truly understand Life Without Parole without knowing its impact on the families and communities of those who are condemned? In this episode, we look at the sentence through the eyes of Patricia Vickers. She shares about her complicated struggles as the mother of a son who's been condemned to life in prison. Learn about the growing movement for second chances that gives her hope and keeps us fighting to end Death By Incarceration.
When Life Means Death
March 15, 2021 09:00 - 35 minutes - 33.7 MBHow can we truly understand Life Without Parole without knowing its impact on the families and communities of those who are condemned? In this episode, we look at the sentence through the eyes of Patricia Vickers. She shares about her complicated struggles as the mother of a son who's been condemned to life in prison. Learn about the growing movement for second chances that gives her hope and keeps us fighting to end Death By Incarceration.
Reopening Hope at the Board of Pardons
January 29, 2021 11:00 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBAs much as “mass incarceration” and “criminal justice reform” have become common terms in American vernacular, one would think we know pretty-much all there is to know about them. In Episode 5, we dig into an important part of the criminal legal system — Commutation and the Board of Pardons. Hear from Naomi Blount-Wilson, a woman who spent 37 years in Pennsylvania’s prison system on a sentence to life without parole. Now she’s free and a voice of hope for many. We also hear from Lily Rorick,...
Black Feminist Perspectives
December 21, 2020 12:00 - 59 minutes - 81.5 MBWith everything we’re confronted with, we recognize the need to look through different sets of eyes. In this episode, we take a look through the lens of Black Feminism. Join us for a rich conversation on the subject with some powerful thinkers in our society — Mandisa More-O’Neal, Tiyi Morris, Erica Perry, and Kris Henderson. Nikki Grant also joins us as co-host, helping to lift up Black Feminism as another way for seeing and being in our struggles for a better world.
Defund Now!
November 23, 2020 11:00 - 40 minutes - 55.1 MBThe same day our last episode on defunding the police went live, Walter Wallace was gunned down by police in front of his mother and community members. In this episode, we dive deeper into the need to redirect funds from the police and towards our communities, with a greater sense of urgency. We continue the conversation with Hiram Rivera, Director of Philadelphia’s Community Resource Hub, and are also joined by Kris Henderson, Executive Director of the Amistad Law Project.
To Defund or Not to Defund
October 22, 2020 10:00 - 38 minutes - 53 MBOne might think that communities of color, who are disproportionately on the receiving end of police violence, are on the same page about defunding the police. But, that is not the case. Black and Brown communities are caught between violence from police and from community members. Many want the police to be defunded, while others are not in favor. In this episode, we sit down with Councilmember Kendra Brooks to flesh out what defunding the police really means. We also highlight the wor...
Volcanoes of the Virus: Pandemic in PA Prisons
September 17, 2020 10:00 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MBCOVID-19 has been affecting us all, but nobody feels it more than the 2.3 million people trapped behind prison walls. In this first episode of the Amistad Law Project’s new podcast, our host Kempis ‘Ghani’ Songster explores the pandemic’s impact on incarcerated people in Pennsylvania, and the greater national and global context. He is joined on the show by community advocates Regina Glass and Sandra Hill, Amistad’s Organizing Director Sean Damon, and Professor Rachel Lopez of Drexel Univer...