Thursday, November 18, 2026 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Online (Zoom)

Join us for an evening of conversation, storytelling, and collective imagination centered on abolition. 

This gathering brings together people who identify with, are curious about, or are actively engaged in abolitionist work—including people directly and indirectly impacted by incarceration, policing, criminalization, immigration enforcement, family policing, and other systems of social control. 

This is not intended to be a traditional academic event. It is a gathering. 

A space to share knowledge.
A space to question what we have been taught.
A space to imagine what freedom could look like.
And a space to consider what abolition asks of us in our everyday lives, relationships, communities, classrooms, organizations, and professions. 

The evening will also introduce 94A6325: Coming of Age in the Era of Mass Incarceration as a first-person account and teaching tool for engaging questions of incarceration, criminalization, family and community, freedom, and abolitionist praxis. 

We will also introduce Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work and invite participation in a forthcoming special issue: Songs of Freedom: Imagining Abolition with Those Closest to the Problem. 

Come ready to listen, share, question, imagine, and connect. Most importantly, come ready to think together about a simple but powerful question: What does abolition look like when we center the knowledge, experiences, imagination, and practices of those closest to systems of harm? 

Featuring:

• connease warren, Abolitionist Law Center
• Marlon Peterson, author and host of DEcarcerated
• Alan Detlaff, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and upEND Movement
• Jae, New York University Silver School of Social Work

REGISTER

Sponsored by upEND Movement, Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, the Abolitionist Law Center, and the Network to Advance Abolition in Social Work