A Mother Rebuilds Her Life After Surviving Abuse And Prison

A Mother Rebuilds Her Life After Surviving Abuse And Prison

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/fan_mail/new] We talk with Leslie Campbell about surviving abuse, being incarcerated as a mother, and rebuilding a life through education, faith, and community. We name the harm mass incarceration does to families and push for a world where Black women are believed, protected, and free to thrive.  • Leslie’s testimony of self-defense, incarceration, and finding a way forward  • Education as the turning point for voice, self-esteem, and reentry success  • What Leslie sees when bringing hope and resources into women’s facilities  • Realities of incarceration at Rikers and upstate, including prison labor  • The impact of separation on children, mothers, and extended family caregivers  • Reentry guilt, family alienation, and the trauma of reunification  • Faith as survival in solitary confinement and a guide for restoration  • Practical ways churches can support incarcerated people and returning citizens  • Encouragement for mothers to practice grace and release perfection myths  Please download and share on all platforms.  Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and download our social mobile app.  Download the Abolitionist Sanctuary Social Mobile app.  Also enroll in our courses and become certified at abolitionacademy.com.  Don't forget to become a member and subscribe to our mailing list at abolitionistsanctuary.org.  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/support] Sign-up [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org] and join a social media platform for abolitionists Enroll [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org/train/courses/] to take courses at Abolition Academy Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abolitionistsanctuary/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/AbolitionSnctry], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistSanctuary] Subscribe to our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AbolitionistSanctuary] Channel

Ancestral Wisdom Can Help Us Resist Authoritarian Politics

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/fan_mail/new] Monuments, memory, and movement power collide when we sit down with Pastor William Lamar IV of Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. We start with Abolition April and why faith-based abolition cannot stay theoretical when regressive policies and public violence keep targeting Black communities, especially Black women. From the first minutes, this conversation is clear: abolition is not only a practice, it is a way of life that forms what we believe, how we worship, and how we organize. Pastor Lamar takes us deep into the spiritual technology of ancestral veneration through his book “Ancestors: The Names That Bless Us, Curse Us, and Hold Us.” We unpack the difference between ancestors of light who bless and hold us and “shadow ancestors” whose energy can reinforce white supremacist culture, even through the architecture and rituals of Washington, DC. We also talk theology with our whole chest, from unlearning who is “in our head” when we read scripture to challenging harmful church teachings like gendering God and the violent logic of penal substitutionary atonement. Then we get concrete about strategy: how to organize in an authoritarian political climate without being rattled into burnout, what it meant for Metropolitan AME to sue after the Proud Boys attack, and why building power is not optional. We close with hard-won fundraising and philanthropy lessons on relational grantmaking, transparency, and expanding the table so the work can last. Subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review to help more people find this faith-based abolitionist conversation, then tell us in the comments: what would an abolitionist sanctuary look like in your city? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/support] Sign-up [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org] and join a social media platform for abolitionists Enroll [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org/train/courses/] to take courses at Abolition Academy Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abolitionistsanctuary/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/AbolitionSnctry], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistSanctuary] Subscribe to our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AbolitionistSanctuary] Channel

Renita Weems On Black Womanhood, Faith, And The Making Of A Scholar

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/fan_mail/new] Start with open windows, end with open hands. We sit down with Rev. Dr. Renita Weems—writer, AME elder, and pioneering biblical scholar—to trace the unlikely roads from paper dolls and public libraries to Princeton and the pulpit. She takes us into the classrooms and kitchens that mothered her, the librarians who handed her systems and keys, and the teachers who crossed boundaries to keep a brilliant, mouthy teenager from disappearing. What emerges is a map of how ordinary people and imperfect institutions become sanctuaries. We go deep on womanism—both the folk wisdom and the academic methodology. Renita names it as an unapologetic commitment to Black women’s thriving, with labels that signal our politics and hold us accountable. She pushes past caricatures of elitism and the “mean elder” trope, inviting a sharper critique of systems—patriarchy, misogyny, white supremacy—rather than personalities. The conversation also confronts the Bible’s patriarchy without flinching, while still mining its poetry and resistance for today’s struggles, especially where Black mothers are punished for surviving. When the topic turns to calling, Renita reframes ministry as elder work: walking with people in grief, crisis, and ambiguity, not performing on a platform. She mourns how easily we discard the Black church, even as its songs, casseroles, and stubborn love continue to steady us in surgery rooms and sorrow. Through stories of mentors, tough love, and intergenerational repair, we explore how to be mothered—and motherable—so that movements gain discipline without losing joy. If you’re hungry for a conversation that is tender, rigorous, and unafraid—about faith, womanism, Black motherhood, and the craft of surviving with your soul intact—press play. Then share it with the teacher, coach, or church mother who kept your window to the world wide open. Subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Share this episode with a friend who needs courage today. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/support] Sign-up [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org] and join a social media platform for abolitionists Enroll [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org/train/courses/] to take courses at Abolition Academy Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abolitionistsanctuary/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/AbolitionSnctry], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistSanctuary] Subscribe to our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AbolitionistSanctuary] Channel

How Faith, Rhetoric, And Black Memory Resist White Christian Nationalism

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/fan_mail/new] We trace Black history as living resistance, linking Reconstruction to today’s bans and misinformation while centering Henry McNeal Turner’s radical theology and the Colored Conventions as blueprints for action. Faith, rhetoric, and archives become tools to confront white Christian nationalism and build abolitionist sanctuaries. • significance of Black History Month amid erasure • Reconstruction as a mirror for current politics • rhetorical strategies for truth in a noisy age • Africa as origin and identity anchor • Henry McNeal Turner’s evolution and legacy • women’s influence in AME leadership and ministry • “God is a Negro” as liberating claim today • abolition as faith practice and community design • the 19th‑century Colored Conventions movement • current books, research, and ways to support Download the Abolitionist Sanctuary app and apply to become a member on our social platform Please download and share on all platforms Email us to join our newsletter Enroll in our courses and become certified at abolitionacademy.com Become a member and subscribe to our mailing list at abolitionistsanctuary.org Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/support] Sign-up [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org] and join a social media platform for abolitionists Enroll [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org/train/courses/] to take courses at Abolition Academy Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abolitionistsanctuary/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/AbolitionSnctry], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistSanctuary] Subscribe to our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AbolitionistSanctuary] Channel

From Loss To Leverage: Reimagining Government With Black Women At The Core

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/fan_mail/new] Start with the sting, end with a plan. After a brutal political cycle and a year of losses, we refuse to romanticize resilience and instead ground it in what Bishop Leah Daughtry calls the ripple effect: small, faithful actions that travel farther than the splash. Together, we unpack how to turn communal values into public power, why the most radical choice today is real community, and how churches can move from Sunday language to Monday policy. We get specific. Community isn’t a vibe—it’s an operating system for change. You’ll hear how to map the most urgent local needs, identify who holds the policy levers, and meet electeds like employers meeting employees: with clarity, receipts, and accountability. We break down voting rights, disinformation, and the false lure of perfectionism at the polls. No candidate is flawless, but values show up on ballots every time. Choose the closest alignment, organize for the rest, and don’t cede ground to suppression that fights so hard precisely because our votes work. Strategy runs through every beat of this conversation. Project 2025 didn’t appear overnight, and neither will our counter. We outline a great reimagining—rebuilding agencies and systems not as they were, but as our communities need them to be, from education to health to global partnerships. That requires year-round organizing, local party engagement, and a willingness to lead. The leadership line is short. Step in. At the center stand Black women, whose civic muscle and economic impact move families, churches, and cities. Invest here and you lift entire ecosystems. Bishop Daughtry shares updates on Power Rising and her relaunch of The Faithful Citizen, inviting all of us to practice a public faith that protects dignity, expands opportunity, and wins material change. If this moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more candid conversations at the intersection of faith, abolition, and policy, and leave a review so others can find the show. Then tell us: what ripple will you start this week? Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2106651/support] Sign-up [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org] and join a social media platform for abolitionists Enroll [https://www.abolitionistsanctuary.org/train/courses/] to take courses at Abolition Academy Follow us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/abolitionistsanctuary/], Twitter [https://twitter.com/AbolitionSnctry], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/AbolitionistSanctuary] Subscribe to our YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@AbolitionistSanctuary] Channel