Move It Forward
We 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.
Episodes
17 episodes
Alternatives Pt 2: Getting to the Roots of Violence
In 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. ...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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1:02:14
Alternatives Part 1: Mediation and Mentorship
Throughout 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 alternativ...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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47:47
The Limits of American Criminal Justice Part 2: Prisons and Prosecution
We’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 pas...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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41:10
The Limits of American Criminal Justice Part 1: Police
The 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 incarc...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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45:32
Drugs and Guns: How Violence Intersects with the Drug Economy
US 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...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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53:21
Aftermath: Grief and Life After Losing a Loved One to Gun Violence
This 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 mu...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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40:50
Staring Down the Barrel: What Happened to Our Communities when Gun Control Failed
This 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 mak...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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37:22
Proximity: People Impacted by Gun Violence Explain the Crisis
What 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 riche...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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46:01
Untrue Crime: How Sensationalism Distorts Our Sense of Safety
Are 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. ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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40:33
When Inequality Feeds Violence, Exploring the Roots of a Crisis
There’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 t...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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36:14
Care Not Cops: Mental Health Responses for Our Communities
What 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 t...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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50:49
When Life Means Death
How 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 abou...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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35:27
Reopening Hope at the Board of Pardons
As 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 l...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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41:07
Black Feminist Perspectives
With 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 powerf...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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59:20
Defund Now!
The 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 to...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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40:05
To Defund or Not to Defund
One 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 bet...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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38:34
Volcanoes of the Virus: Pandemic in PA Prisons
COVID-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 pandem...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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39:34
