Our Lineages
The ideas, tools and practices we share in Big Beef and Beyond have their roots in the work of leagues of activists, community organisers, educators, somatic practitioners, communards, spiritual leaders, big sisters, mediators, facilitators, family-builders and countless others who have come before us. Below, we share an always-growing, never-complete list of inputs that have informed our approach, in the spirit of crediting and inspiration for new learning.
These are some of the people, organisations and publications have have fed our dreams and designs for Big Beef and Beyond, so far.
People and Organisations
- Abolitionist Futures
- adrienne maree brown
- aequa
- Alexandra Kollontai
- Al Qaws
- Alternative Justice
- Asad Haider
- Audre Lorde
- Camille Sapara Barton
- Care aka Elia Diane Fushi Bekene
- Charlene Carruthers
- Clare McGlynn and Nicole Westmarland
- Combahee River Collective
- Creative Interventions
- Cradle Community
- D Hunter
- Good Night Out Campaign
- Healing Justice London
- Interrupting Crim
- Just Practice Collaborative
- jarral Boyd
- Jo Freedman
- Judith Herman
- Kai Cheng Thom
- Katie Spark
- Kes Otter Lieffe
- Kelsey Mohamed
- Level Up
- Lajee Center
- Lola Olufemi
- Lumos Transforms
- Ntanya Lee
- Mariame Kaba
- Mia Mingus
- Prentis Hemphill
- Resist and Renew
- Selma James
- Sisters Inside
- Sisters Uncut
- Sarah Schulman
- Spring Up Cooperative
- Staci Haines
- Support NY
- Transforming Justice Australia
- Women in Exile e.V.
- Undercurrent Victoria
Bryony:
In this work I am indebted to the lineage of big women on picket lines, exhausted teachers, helpline workers, the quietly insistent and forever uncredited, genius punks, all the ones who taught me to keep it moving, spiky, loving, and in perspective, the ones locked up still freer than us, the ones who refused visibility, the ones living under occupation who showed me how much future can already be built, and the ones who survived and never told a soul.
Sarj:
I would like to express gratitude to the lands I have lived and traveled, to all those Black, Indigenous and women of colour and genderqueer people, disabled, sick and crazy folks, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, working and poverty class folks, people of non-normative body types or abilities, incarcerated and detained people, “neurodivergent” people, queer and trans people, sex workers, unhoused folks, people who live with addictions, people without passports or residency status, and everyone who lives and cares for each other at the margins of our societies, who have shared their wisdoms and experiences to shape new worlds — my own included.
Subject-Specific Books
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair, by Sarah Schulman
Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide To Stop Interpersonal Violence (free)
Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication (Workbook), by Meenadchi
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators, by Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care, by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba
Mistaken Identity: Mass Movements and Racial Ideology By Asad Haider
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times, by carla bergmann and Nick Montgomergy (free on Anarchist Library)