Hello all. I wanted to share a project that has been in the works for about two years to hear what you all think of it.

I've been collaborating with an artist and activist, Darrell Fair, on a project about mass incarceration call Bird. Bird is an interactive documentary where players can piece together memories from Darrell's life, told through recorded interviews of him and his family, his own hand-drawn art and animations, and through various interactions such as home-video projects and telephone calls. The goal is to leverage the digital technology of video games to connect to people outside of the black-box of prison, so that people can have meaningful conversations about mass incarceration.

It's a very intimate and vulnerable look at Darrell's life, resulting in what I think is a powerful experience of humanization of the prison population. I'm at the point where I am ready to share this project with players and at festivals and I'm searching for an audience that would have a genuine vested interest in this story, and who might support or join Darrell's fight.

For those that would like more information about this, you can find out more about it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2920280/Bird/ or a short video on it here: https://youtu.be/61cSbcWhRfA

I understand this is a divisive topic, and an unorthodox medium for exploration of mass incarceration, but I'd love to hear your honest thoughts. What do you all think? Is this something you would be intrigued by?

Screen Capture from Darrell's \"Conviction\" Memory, Hand-Drawn Animation from Stateville Correctional, IL

Hello, my name is Vonds, a Black transgender non-binary and neurodivergent individual passionate about helping QTBIPOC folks near release from incarceration.

I’m starting an organization to teach coding to QTBIPOC individuals one year from release, offering them skills for financial stability and purpose. This project will create opportunities for those historically excluded from tech and reduce recidivism.

Your support will help cover my personal expenses as I dedicate myself full-time to developing a curriculum, building partnerships, and securing funding.

With 6 years of tech experience and a computer science degree in progress, I’m uniquely positioned to lead this impactful program. Any contribution or share helps make this vision a reality!

https://gofund.me/075cb7c1

Thank you!

Today people see the short-term reductions in homicide rates, and that's what immediately matters to lots of people, regardless of the immense state violence and destruction of civil rights. I never see this addressed by other abolitionists despite Bukele essentially just getting praise as a savior of El Salvador in media, or at best abstract liberal critiques.

How do we communicate abolitionism as a better alternative in the face of an overwhelming majority of El Salvador approving of Bukele's demagoguery and prison expansion policies? Sure, we can talk about getting people's needs met, but in my experience it just falls on deaf ears when they can't understand themselves as targets of the state.