It may be a new year, but we’re our same old “fuck prison” selves. LeLe sends love and appreciation to everyone who sent holiday solidarity!
Below are some reflections from Red about their visit:
Finally getting together my notes and reflections (that I can share on here) from our visit. Reeling from the news of airstrikes and imperialist violence that we saw after leaving the prison.
There were car shakedowns again, which almost put us in danger of crossing into the dead zone that is afternoon count. Thankfully we were processed with 3min to spare and got in for our visit just under the wire. The arbitrary evil of prison policy never gets easier to navigate. You can build up expectations and anticipate fuckery, but it’s never “easier.”
LeLe looked so good, and was excited for our own version of a new year celebration: shit talking, drinking fruit juice and holding hands across the table a lot.
She spent a lot of time persuading Aaron on where to get their friendship-freedom tattoo when she’s out. She and I (and E) already have our placement planned!
We spoke more about gender, gender neutral pronouns, and practicing asking what feels good to people. LeLe is so demonstrably kind and genuine in her questions, thoughts and insights about sexuality, gender expression and freedom. People are gonna learn so much from her. We have.
We ran down the list of who to thank for all the beautiful holiday cards, letters, commissary gifts and love. s/o @survivepunishNY @survivepunish @MomsUnitedChi @LoveProtectOrg @hli016 @EdenNewmar @colinasher @prisonculture @uplcchicago + so many more! Thank y’all for showing up for LeLe!
We had some deep discussions about preparing for romantic relationships, and leaving trifling men in the dust. We did small celebratory dances in our seats because the new CO was twitchy.
One of the biggest takeaways from our visit was the importance of embracing the messiness of our stories and violent acts of self-love.