I Use My Love to Guide Me

Conversations with CeCe McDonald, Reina Gossett, and Dean Spade

In February 2014, CeCe McDonald joined prison abolition activists Reina Gossett and Dean Spade in a conversation about her own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence. This video series captures themes from that conversation.

On April 21, 2014, the conversation was expanded when Reina and Dean joined CeCe for her first public appearance in New York City co-sponsored by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Office of Social Justice Initiatives at The New School, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU, the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, and the Transgender Youth Support Network. These conversations are part of the series No One is Disposable, which features conversations on trans activism and prison abolition with BCRW activist fellow Reina Gossett.

In 2011, CeCe McDonald was a fashion design student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College when while walking to a grocery store, she and her friends were attacked by a group of white people shouting racist and transphobic slurs. When CeCe fatally stabbed one of their attackers in self defense, she was arrested and eventually imprisoned for 19 months. As she awaited trial and experienced incarceration, the Transgender Youth Support Network in Minnesota created the Free CeCe campaign, inspiring an international community of activists to support CeCe and rally for her freedom. Throughout, CeCe updated community members with her evocative and thoughtful writing on police brutality, transphobia, homophobia, racism, and the power of love against systems of injustice.

 

Released Mar 31, 2014
Tags: activism, class, economic justice, gender, human rights, politics, prisons, queer, race, transgender, violence

I Use My Love to Guide Me–Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Impossible Situations

CeCe McDonald joins prison abolition activists Reina Gossett and Dean Spade in a conversation about her own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence.

Released Apr 21, 2014
Tags: activism, class, economic justice, gender, human rights, politics, prisons, queer, race, transgender, violence

Prisons Aren’t Safe for Anybody

CeCe McDonald joins prison abolition activists Reina Gossett and Dean Spade in a conversation about her own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence.

Released Mar 31, 2014
Tags: activism, class, economic justice, human rights, police, prison, queer, race, transgender, violence

Fighting the Isolation and Dehumanization of Prisons and Policing

CeCe McDonald joins prison abolition activists Reina Gossett and Dean Spade in a conversation about her own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence.

Released Apr 7, 2014
Tags: activism, class, economic justice, gender, human rights, politics, prisons, queer, race, transgender, violence

Police + Prisons Don’t Keep Us Safe–We Keep Each Other Safe

CeCe McDonald joins prison abolition activists Reina Gossett and Dean Spade in a conversation about her own experiences surviving trauma and impossible situations, and the importance of collective organizing for people facing systems of violence.