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The Activist Files is a podcast by the Center for Constitutional Rights where we feature the stories of people on the front lines fighting for social justice, including activists, lawyers, and storytellers.
60 Episodes
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In this episode of the Activist Files, Communications Director Sunyata Altenor and Senior Legal Worker Leah Todd sat with New York Times bestselling author and activist adrienne maree brown. Informed by 27 years of movement facilitation, somatics, science fiction and doula work, their new book Loving Corrections explores how we start to heal our divided country, world, and even our relationships based on making love-based adjustments and having honest conversations. adrienne tackles big ideas...
Black August began in the 1970s to mark the assassination of incarcerated political prisoners like the revolutionary organizer and writer George Jackson during a prison rebellion in California. Black August honors the freedom fighters, especially those inside the walls of our sprawling prison-industrial complex, who, with their vision, tenacity, and deep love for our communities, are leading us toward the horizon of abolition. The Center for Constitutional Rights is proud to be part of a rich...
In episode 57 of The Activist Files, we’ll hear a discussion around Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that went before the Supreme Court on April 22, 2024. According to the National Homelessness Law Center, “this case will decide whether cities are allowed to punish people for things like sleeping outside with a pillow or blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options.” The Center for Constitutional Rights, in our amicus brief, argued that the Supreme Court should rule that ordinances crim...
In episode 56 of The Activist Files, we’ll hear a discussion sparked by the 10th anniversary of the historic ruling in our stop-and-frisk case, Floyd, et. al v. City of New York. The Center for Constitutional Rights, together with NYU Review of Law & Social Change, NYU’s Ending the Prison Industrial Complex, and NYU’s National Lawyers Guild Chapter, brought together law students, lawyers, organizers, and impacted community members for a one-day symposium on November 3, 2023. Together, t...
In the latest episode of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks to five plaintiffs in our case Women in Struggle, et al. v. Bain, et al., recorded on the ground just before the National March in Florida to Protect Trans Youth and a Speakout for Trans Lives that took place in Orlando on October 7. Hundreds turned out to protest the state’s violent and unconstitutional laws and spoke out against the wave of anti-trans bills, which attendees linked to a longstanding his...
On Episode 54 of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks with Ashley Diamond, a civil rights activist, who made a pivotal choice on the eve of her trial in January against the Georgia Department of Corrections for Eighth Amendment violations of inadequate healthcare and sexual assault due to officials placing her in a male prison: She voluntarily dismissed her case to focus on healing. Since then, however, Ashley has struggled to access healthcare, therapy, and housing, bec...
On the occasion of the first session of the newly established UN Permanent Forum on the People of African Descent (UNPFPAD), the Center for Constitutional Rights traveled to Geneva to build solidarity with comrades from around the world committed to helping advance the mandate of the forum. In this episode, our Executive Director, Vince Warren, has a conversation with Gay McDougall, member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and former Special Rapporteu...
This year marks the 90th anniversary of our longtime ally and current partner, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the storied school that’s helped nurture the Black freedom struggle and other social movements across the south. For this month’s episode of the Activist Files, co-executive directors Ash-Lee Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele chat with Emily Early and Jess Vossburgh from our Southern Regional Office about Highlander’s singular role as a training ground and meetin...
How do attacks on trans organizing and rights impact related movements for bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, and liberation? On episode 51 of "The Activist Files," our Communications Associate Lexi Webster talks with Imara Jones, award-winning journalist, content creator and thought leader, founder of TransLash Media, and host of the TransLash podcast, and Diamond Stylz, activist, media maker, executive director of Black Trans Women Inc., and host of the Marsha’s Plate podcast, about how...
On the 50th episode of “The Activist Files", legal worker Sadé Evans speaks with Helen D. Noel. Helen is an United States Air Force Chief Master Sergeant retiree, accomplished author, keynote speaker, and transformational consultant known for her nonjudgmental stance and radical coaching for others experiencing traumatic stress. This episode will discuss Helen’s 12-year journey to learn about the Rosenwald Fund study in efforts to understand the effects it may have had on her family and thous...
What happens to a predominantly Black community when its government officials prioritize profit over health and legacy? On the 49th episode of “The Activist Files", legal worker Sadé Evans speaks with Dr. Joy Banner and Jo Banner of “The Descendants project”, a non-profit organization that advocates for descendants of people who were enslaved in Louisiana’s River Parishes. In honor of Earth Day, this discussion centers the founders of the Descendants Project as they speak out against corporat...
How has Black feminism ushered in our current understanding and practice of abolition? On the 48th episode of the Activist Files, advocacy associate maya finoh speaks with Andrea Ritchie, an attorney, author, organizer, and co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization and In Our Names Network, who has been documenting, organizing, advocating, litigating, and agitating around policing and criminalization of Black cis/trans women and girls and trans and gender non-conforming people for the past t...
On the Black History Month episode of the Activist Files, Center for Constitutional Rights board member Meena Jagannath speaks with Rob Robinson, a formerly homeless community organizer and housing activist who has worked with social movements all over the world. Rob discusses how his personal experiences have shaped his political outlook, how he hopes to change people’s fundamental relationship to land and housing, and how, throughout American history, housing has been a primary means of opp...
Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Program Manager Aliya Hussain, Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal, and Senior Attorney Wells Dixon answer questions about the state of Guantánamo after 20 years operating as an offshore prison for Muslim men and boys in the so-called war on terror. We marked the 20th anniversary with a virtual rally, op-eds, media interviews, and an event that we organized, Guantánamo, Off the Record: 20 Years in the Fight. For that event, we collected questions...
Joseph Thompson, a green card holder from Jamaica, came to the United States in 1985. After an encounter with police in Dalton, Georgia, Joseph was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So began his nearly three years in ICE captivity. Joseph is one of the people featured in “Cruel by Design: Voices of Resistance from Immigration Detention,” a forthcoming report from the Immigrant Defense Project and the Center for Constitutional Rights. In this episode of the ...
The third Thursday in November is a National Day of Mourning, where we mourn the genocide of millions of Native people and the theft of Native land, and where we honor the ongoing struggle for Native liberation and Land Back across Turtle Island. In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day last month — and in support of the Indigenous-led week of action People v. Fossil Fuels — the Indigenous Environmental Network, The Red Nation, and the Center for Constitutional Rights held an online discussion with...
How do organizers and advocates use art to promote and demystify the struggle for disability justice and its connections to other liberation movements? On the 43rd episode of the Activist Files, Senior Legal Worker Leah Todd speaks with Britney Wilson, a poet and writer who was featured in the Brave New Voices documentary series, attorney, and Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School, and Lucy Trieshmann, an educator and ...
As we look back on the past 20 years since 9/11, certain issues come to the forefront – the toll of the war in Afghanistan; the torture of detainees in CIA custody; the worldwide drone program; the ongoing 19-year detention of detainees at Guantanamo. The list goes on. Less visible and examined are the hundreds of “terrorism” prosecutions brought in federal courts since 9/11 and their associated harms: the preying on vulnerable defendants by aggressive government informants to concoct charges...
As its on-going celebration of the updated sixth edition of the Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook, Center for Constitutional Rights Co-author and Senior Legal Worker Ian Head speaks with a number of people who have influenced and been influenced by the handbook for the 41st episode: “Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook: Exploring the legacy of inside-outside organizing.” Ian spoke with: ● Brian Glick, a lawyer, Fordham Law School professor, writer and activist, and original author...
“The Activist Files” is excited to cross-promote our 40th episode with “The Artivists’ Room,” Donkeysaddle Projects’ podcast, which features conversations with artists, organizers, and activists, whose art serves as a tool for movement building. For this co-branded episode, Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Director Nadia Ben-Youssef sat down for an interview with Donkeysaddle Projects’ podcast host, cultural organizer, artist, actor, and writer BK King. Nadia and BK talked about what...
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