Abolition is the only true solution to combating the issues of food insecurities stemming from carcerality. There are steps to be taken that will center the self-determination and agency of inmates in terms of their relationships with food in prisons as we work towards abolition.

For the next few months, What We Water is going to be focused on a theme titled Nourish. What does it mean to truly nourish oneself? In the spiritual, mental, and physical sense? What does it mean to nourish oneself in a society where nourishment (in all its forms) is denied from your community as an extension of oppression? How can we nourish ourselves and our communities as a form of resistance? How have communities taken nourishment into their own hands and called out oppressive systems? We will be pondering these questions and more with our Nourish campaign.

Transformative justice is a community-driven process of accountability that looks outside of the state to remedy harm. Rather than alienating or immediately punishing the perpetrator, the process includes working with that person to take accountability for the harm they have caused.

Community is about love and this poem explores the subtle and not so subtle ways in which love manifests itself. Whether in a gathering with friends or in intimate moments with a partner, love finds its way in togetherness. This poem first appeared in the Blackprint Magazine and we encourage you to check out their edition on Black Love out now!

As What We Water’s theme this April is autonomy and community, we want to highlight ways in which we can support Black and brown individuals who are currently incarcerated for non-violent criminal offenses related to marijuana possession. If you are a fellow pothead, it is important to invest in the liberation of cannabis prisoners who are isolated from a society in which green is the dream. 

To explore these autonomy and community, our content this month will cover a wide range of related topics. We hope that this work will help you do the work towards becoming the best community member and being more in touch with yourself. How can we show up for our communities if we do not know who we are and what our role is? How can we show up for ourselves if we do not have a supportive community around us? What We Water will guide you through your practice of connecting autonomy and community.

An intimate form of exchange between you and yourself, writing can be one of the most impactful ways to practice loving. However you choose to respond, allow these journaling and writing prompts to guide you towards radical self love.

Janet Jackson did not deserve the cruelty she received after the 2004 halftime show. It is a timeless example of the double standard between Black women and men not only in the music industry, but also in nearly every social realm. Black women are not protected in this world, especially when it comes to sexualization and objectification.

In celebration of February's “Loving” campaign, we have compiled a list of poems, books, and other writings that encapsulate love as action. Let this literature guide you on your journey towards loving, whether that be how you choose to show yourself love, how you love your romantic partners, and/or how you love your friends and family. Here’s to celebrating love as an action, and as your birthright <3

“To be a woman is pain, love, beauty, and joy. It is to bleed and cry. To be a Black or brown woman is to bleed and cry and feel like no one can hear you. Even worse is to realize that they can hear you - but that they do not see you as a being who can feel and who can hurt.”

A poem celebrating the beauty and triumphs of women of color in spite of the violence we have endured,

This essay will explore the particular disparities that exist in reproductive health care in the United States for Black and non-Black Latine immigrant women. It is my expectation that the sociological literature that exists on this topic will help inform, if not provide a sufficient answer to the following research question: what is the extent to which Black and non-Black Latine immigrant women do not receive adequate health care in the United States, and what are the factors that contribute to this disparity?

This piece was written for an assignment in a social theory course. The assignment asked students to identify a social problem and propose a theory for why it exists, in addition to a tangible solution.

Black women have not been encouraged in the United States’ history to take control of their sexual and reproductive health, as that right has often been stripped from them before they are able to. Black women have been socialized to believe they lack power in sexual relationships, and I hypothesize that this socialization has lead their being less likely to negotiate contraceptive use and seek adequate reproductive health care.

“Black women have been my protectors in this lifetime, certainly the last and prayerfully the next. I have known no stronger love than that I have received from Black women一my mother, my grandmothers, my aunties, my cousins, my best friends, the kind, soulful Black women I have met in my community, outside of my community and in the sweetest of moments. I have never received a better love.”