IGLI Program Manager, Carly Paul - Quote by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
“Abolition is not absence; it is presence. What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities. So those who feel in their gut deep anxiety that abolition means knock it all down, scorch the earth and start something new, let that go. Abolition is building the future from the present in all of the ways we can.”
- Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Occasionally a quote, phrase or statement speaks to us in a deep and profound way. Sometimes they emerge in academic writing, across the social media sphere, or in more casual conversational moments. IGLI Director Marie Berry came across this conversation and this quote immediately leapt out. It speaks to the reality that we don’t know what the future looks like, but that we are constantly building it - in every action, thought, and moment. It also brings the concept of abolition into clearer terms: it is not about “tearing it all down”, but rather building piece by piece a more just and free world. The quote affirms what we at IGLI often place our hope in - that at any moment, across the world, women leaders and activists in our network, and many people beyond our network, are always experimenting, fighting, and making the world anew. We see our work as a way to support, amplify, and learn from these ‘experiments and possibilities” that offer us a blueprint for how we might build a world that is free from violence.
A fragment of this quote “What the World Will Become” has become the name of our Podcast, Digital Journal, and our instagram handle @whattheworldwillbe. Our work is to support those engaged in these ‘experiments and possibilities,’ whose work offers us a blueprint for how we might build a world that is free from violence.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore is an abolitionist and scholar of prison abolition at the City University of New York. This quote emerged from a conversation between Ruth and Leopold Lambert about abolition efforts in California. The original interview can be found here.
You can download, print and fold this zine to keep! Here is a guide for how to cut and fold a zine.
Abolition
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Futures Thinking
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Possibility
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Abolition ✶ Futures Thinking ✶ Possibility ✶
Author Bio
Carly Paul is a feminist program manager and researcher with seven years of experience working at the intersection of gender justice, international development, and human rights advocacy. Her background includes working alongside grassroots organizations as a USAID Global Health Fellow, consulting with USAID implementors, and supporting gender advocacy and programs at CARE and MADRE. As a Sie Fellow she received her M.A. in International Studies from the Korbel School for Global and Public Affairs with focuses on gender and environmental justice, peacebuilding, and global trauma studies. She currently serves as the Program Manager at the Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative, where she has co-authored feminist policy writing and planned feminist convening spaces focused on transnational and cross sector collaboration and activist care. She also works as a florist and people's acupuncturist, providing free auricular acupuncture in her community. She is committed to building a world where people live in right relationship with our more-than-human kin.
