Mariame Kaba’s We Do This 'Til We Free Us is a collection of essays, interviews, and conversations that distills decades of abolitionist thought into accessible lessons. Kaba invites organizers to approach abolition as a daily practice rooted in relationship-building, mutual aid, and political imagination. Rather than offering a single blueprint, she offers questions that help us reorient our organizing toward care and accountability.
Themes to Lift Up
Abolition is presence. Kaba insists that we build housing, care networks, and conflict-response practices as diligently as we tear down cages. Safety work is creative, not just oppositional.
Hope is a discipline. In her framing, hope is a habit we cultivate when state violence feels suffocating. It keeps movements from slipping into despair or punishment logic.
Experimentation is essential. Transformative justice pods, youth-led accountability processes, bail funds—they’re prototypes meant to be iterated, not flawless institutions. Try things, reflect, adjust.
Ways to Use This Book
Use the essays as prompts for reflection circles—map how your community currently responds to harm and brainstorm alternatives together. Borrow Kaba’s case studies to sketch community safety plans for mental health crises or protest support. And bring the chapters into mutual-aid onboarding so volunteers understand that care, consent, and sustainability are abolitionist practices, not side projects.