Audio Interference

In this episode of Audio Interference, we’re sharing reflections from Jessica Paradiso, a survivor on the inside. The episode stems from a collaboration with Survived and Punished New York, a grassroots, abolitionist group that works to eradicate the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the culture of violence that contributes to it.

Hello, comrades,

In this episode of Audio Interference, we’re sharing reflections from Jessica Paradiso, a survivor on the inside. The episode stems from a collaboration with Survived and Punished New York, a grassroots, abolitionist group that works to eradicate the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the culture of violence that contributes to it.

Prison walls create barriers to communication. Through our collaboration, we’re bridging this information gap by sharing the experiences of folks on the inside with those on the outside, as well as archiving Survived & Punished’s organizing strategies to free all who are incarcerated.

Together, we came up with questions that Survived & Punished sent to their comrades. This episode is a response from Jessica Paradiso, written in May 2020, read by Survived and Punished volunteer, Yves Tong Nguyen.

A huge thank you to Jessica Paradiso for sharing her story with us. We’d also like to thank Lae Sway, Yves Tong Nguyen, Heena, Zoe Vongtau, Red Schulte, Martina Abrahams Ilunga, and Mariah Hill, along with everyone else at Survived & Punished, for working with us on this episode. To learn more about Survived and Punished, visit their website, survivedandpunishedny.org.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to listen to the other responses from folks inside that are part of this series. We also published an in-depth interview with folks from Survived & Punished about their work. To listen, find us on itunes, stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts: www.audiointerference.org

In solidarity,

Audio Interference

Produced by Interference Archive.

This episode of Audio Interference is about Survived and Punished, a coalition of defense campaigns and grassroots groups committed to eradicating the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the culture of violence that contributes to it. We’re speaking with two members of the New York chapter of the group, Will Willis and Maureen Silverman.

To learn more about Survived and Punished NY, visit https://survivedandpunishedny.org

Read the latest edition of Survived and Punished’s newsletter, Free : Survivors: www.survivedandpunishedny.org/newsletter-campaign/newsletter-store

To learn more about Mia Mingus’ work and writings on transformative justice: www.leavingevidence.wordpress.com

Tits and Sass blog, which Will quotes from in this episode: www.titsandsass.com

Memorial for Darlene “Lulu” Benson-Seay, who Will remembers in this episode: www.mourningourlosses.org/memorials/darlene-lulu-benson-seay?fbclid=IwAR2wA8dCuIi_p_AmyYkg5Sv_4iLTTg-uAL7L4EPYGuRoWkJMv4r-6saIQrA

This episode is part of a series of episodes about Survived and Punished’s work. Visit audiointerference.org to listen to letters from their comrades on the inside. Visit www.survivedandpunishedny.org to read Survived & Punished NY’s newsletters and explore their work.

A huge thank you to Ivie, Sassii, Maureen Silverman, and Will Willis for contributing to this episode. And a huge thank you to all other Survived and Punished volunteers.

Music from this episode (in order of appearance):

“Divide” by Six Time Users, from the album, Live at WFMU for Janky Ray’s Radio Riot 6/16/18

"A quarter of a century” by Survived and Punished comrade Ivié, a song that she wrote about her campaign to free herself from a 25 to life sentence, recorded over the phone from Bedford Hills prison, a maximum security correctional facility in Bedford Hills, NY. Accompanying rap by Survived and Punished comrade, Sassii, who is also incarcerated at Bedford Hills.

Produced by Interference Archive. From all of us at Audio Interference, thanks for listening.

This episode of Audio Interference is about Survived and Punished, a coalition of defense campaigns and grassroots groups committed to eradicating the criminalization of survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and the culture of violence that contributes to it. We’re speaking with two members of the New York chapter of the group, Will Willis and Maureen Silverman.

The Sanctuary City Project collects stories of immigration, detention, and resistance and then shares those narratives with the public through video projections, installations, mobile food projects, billboards, banners, and pop-up print shops.

"Polls showed that the majority of Americans thought that the National Guard did the right thing at Kent State."

"We plant gardens in vacant lots...we turn abandoned buildings into homes, we turn street corners into liberated zones...For a moment, for an hour, for a year, for a decade..A space opens up and we are in control, We the people seize control of public space, seize control of housing, seize control of those things that make up our lives"

This Episode is a recording of the event “We the People won’t go: LES Artists on the Squatter Movement.” Amy Starecheski moderates a discussion with Seth Tobocman, Fly, and Maggie Wrigley. They share their experiences as both squatters and artists in the LES of NY in the 80’s. They talk about the role of art in the fight to stay in the neighborhood, in the fight for affordable and safe housing for themselves and their neighbors.

To see more of Seth Tobocman's work: https://www.sethtobocman.com/

To read about Maggie's book: An Architecture of Change, Building a Better world: https://unmpress.com/books/architecture-change/9780826346865

To see more of Fly's work: http://flyoart.blogspot.com/

This panel was a part of an exhibition and series of events at the archive in Oct 2019-Feb 2020 called Building for Us: Stories of Homesteading and Cooperative Housing.

Audio Interference is produced by the Interference Archive, an all volunteer run archive of social movement material.

Music: "Stuck in New York" Three Chord Monte with Joe Block, live at WFMU September, 2005

In this episode, we speak with Ellen Belcher and Steve Scofield of Ghost Bikes, a volunteer group that installs street memorials for cyclists who have been killed in traffic violence.

"We don't want to have to put up ghost bikes anymore."

27 cyclists were killed in New York City in 2019, more than twice as many as in 2018. In this episode of Audio Interference, we speak with volunteers Ellen Belcher and Steve Scofield from the New York City chapter of Ghost Bikes, who install street memorials for cyclists who have been killed in traffic violence. We travel with them up to 125th to install a bike and learn about the history and current movement of Ghost Bikes. For more information on the memorials in NYC and around the world, check out their website: http://ghostbikes.org/

Thank you to Steve Scofield and Ellen Belcher for speaking with us. To learn more about the 27 cyclists who lost their lives in 2019, we recommend this profile by Gothamist: https://gothamist.com/news/2019-was-extremely-deadly-year-nyc-cyclists-here-are-their-stories

Music and Audio in this Episode:

- Detailing by Blue Dot Sessions

Produced by Interference Archive.