Kai Lumumba Barrow

Kai Lumumba Barrow writes, “Born at the tail end of the fifties and raised in Chicago by activist parents, I cannot recall a time when I was not politically engaged. The culture of resistance, protest politics and institution-building by people of color, women and queer people in the 1960s and 70s have had a tremendous influence on my life/work. Often, the organizing of these periods was collectivist, geared toward living the politics of fundamental social change. I approach organizing as collaborative process and prefer a facilitated approach. I aim to help people recognize their own leadership abilities, urging them to resolve their own problems. Most of my work has been in the criminal justice arena. In the late 1970s I began organizing around the issues of political prisoners in the United States and have been a member of several organizations and coalitions that focus on prisons and policing. I come to the field as a prison abolitionist and am presently the Northeast Regional Coordinator of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization that fights to end the prison industrial complex.”