Former political prisoner, prison abolitionist to highlight fundraiser

Boxcar Books and Community Center Inc. will be host to a fundraiser at 7 p.m. Saturday for recently released political prisoner Ali Khalid Abdullah.

The event will feature two speakers, live acoustic music and complimentary appetizers and desserts.

Abdullah will present his prison writings and discuss his experiences of the past 20 years.

Released from prison this past August, Abdullah spent the last 19 years in Michigan prisons, convicted for his involvement in trying to shut down a major Detroit drug dealer.

After becoming fed up with the Detroit police department’s lack of intervention, Abdullah and other community members decided to get involved. Numerous neighborhood crimes were associated with the local drug dealer, and Abdullah said the youth and elderly were afraid to leave their homes.

The driving force that led Abdullah to take action was the sexual molestation of an 11-year-old girl that occurred to clear what the girl’s mother owed for drugs.

Abdullah was later charged with assault and attempt to rob while armed but said he believes he was arrested because of his political beliefs and his possible associations with groups such as the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army and the Progressive Labor Party.

“I was imprisoned for my beliefs,” Abdullah said, “the belief that we have a right to determine our own destiny, have food, have health care and have our children safe.”
Because of his experiences behind bars, Abdullah now considers himself a prison abolitionist.

“Life in prison was horrible, depressing, vicious – and the officers did not care about any of us,” Abdullah said. “It doesn’t do anything but harden a person; it does not help.”

Bryce Martin, a member of Decarcerate Monroe County, said Abdullah’s story drove him and other Decarcerate Monroe County members to organize the event.

“Ever since we found out Ali was coming to town, we wanted to do whatever support work we could for him,” Martin said. “His story is so compelling.”

Also speaking at the fundraiser will be prison abolitionist, community organizer and writer Anthony Rayson. Rayson is a resident of Chicagoland and runs the Anarchist Black Cross Network and a zine distro, a type of magazine, associated with the group. Rayson said in a statement that he works closely with many prisoners, like Abdullah, to publish their art and writing in his zines.

“I wanted to work with the most brilliant minds,” Rayson said. “The more I learned, and the further I looked into it, I saw that the most brilliant minds were coming out of prisons.”

The event is free, but those who attend are encouraged to make a donation to help Abdullah overcome his hardships including medical conditions that have resulted from his extended imprisonment.

Abdullah’s writings, along with Rayson’s zines and other forms of prisoner artwork, will be available at the event.

“People should be incredibly impressed by the artistic ability that is pouring out of the prisons,” Rayson said. “This fundraiser will sell art, offer free zines and provide an instant education on a genuine, underground media world.”