Fertile Ground

At this moment, our broader Asian American movement is faced with a decision. Will we keep a privileged few among us safe through hate crime laws and increased policing or will we fight for true safety and freedom for all of us?

Abolition is a movement to end policing and incarceration. 18MR has produced Fertile Ground, a beautiful illustrated botanical poster and accompanying essay that introduces the concept of abolition, provides analysis of the current moment in our movement, outlines some roots of policing and examples of resistance. 

This work discusses race, gender, imperialism, and disability justice, knowing everything is connected and abolition is a messy process. Fertile Ground is a living map for ourselves and other Asian Americans who want to tend the fertile ground of abolition. Abolition is the fertile ground beneath us and between us. Yes, abolition is what emerges between us. It's not a top-down thing, a savior, or one policy to free us all. It's us, hand in hand, creating and practicing new ways of being. This is why it is a transformative living practice. We literally grow it, together. 

Fertile Ground is an extension of 18MR’s previous works Call On Me, Not the Cops and Unmasking Yellow Peril.

• 11 x 17, poster, full color front and back.
• Front: Hand drawn illustrations, plant descriptions with therapeutic properties and lessons towards abolition.
• Back: Long form essay and collages

SEAC (Southeast Asian Coalition) is a grassroots organization cultivating power community engagement, social justice, and youth organizing. SEAC exists to amplify a voice for the quickly growing Asian American population in the Carolinas, to add an Asian American voice to the collective movement for justice and equity in North Carolina, and to reinforce and uphold integrity, empowerment, inclusion, tradition, leadership, and critical consciousness at the grassroots level. SEAC is often referred to as “The Village.”

SEAC Village says

Follow them on Instagram @seacvillage