SoapBox Action Works

Featured Cross-platform Multimedia Projects

Watch, listen, read, and interact with our featured cross-platform multimedia projects' pages.

Narrative & Commercial PSAs

Film + TV

2 0 2 0 U P R I S I N G S

From moment to movement. Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, cities globally, especially and including Chicago, rose up to demand an end to police violence and white supremacy. Not only was the government standing by as COVID-19 ravaged Black, Latinx, Indigenous, houseless, and other marginalized communities inciting mass Black death with their calls to "reopen the economy" by any means, but the police, other state authorities, and racist vigilantes continued to brazenly hunt and kill Black folks while they sleep in their beds and on open roads in broad daylight. This was a breaking point.

Words by Damon Williams, Editing by Sensitive Visuals, Photos by Love & Struggle Photos, Music by Rebel Diaz, Footage by SoapBox & Equals 4 Media

Rapid-Response Actions
during COVID-19

We protest the genocidal policies of government that have allowed city and county jails, federal and state prisons, juvenile detention jails, and immigrant detention centers to become hotbeds for COVID-19 infections and death camps for millions.

End IL Prison Lockdown

December 15, 2020 -- SoapBox joins the @EndILPrisonLockdownCoalition demanding that the state of Illinois take the appropriate actions to protect those in IDOC. “Where are you Gov. Pritzker? In the past 10 months, incarcerated people in Illinois have faced an extreme, ineffective l, and unending prison lockdown, forced to stay in their cell over 23 hours a day! Still, over 60 are dead and 1,000s infected. Cages don’t drop COVID! Sign out petition and get more information at linktr.ee/EndILPrisonLockdown! #EndILPrisonLockdown #CagesDontStopCOVID #FreeThemAll

#FreeThemAllBlockParty

May 13, 2020 -- Folks from Assata's Daughters, Liberation Library, American Friends Service Committee (Chicago), Chicago Freedom School, and more held a #FreeThemAllBlockParty outside of Chicago’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) to show solidarity with the young people inside who are #TrappedByToomin. As of May 27, 2020, Judge Michael P. Toomin has been keeping young people trapped there, admitting 100+ new youth to the jail since the COVID-19 outbreak & preventing hearings from being scheduled that would facilitate their release. Demand action here!

#RightToRelief Caravan

May 7, 2020 -- During the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis and beyond, various groups and individuals in Chicago are demanding #RightToRecovery! Along with the People's Bailout, we are calling for an inclusive bailout for and by the people to the rights and resources that have been hoarded for far too long. Get a glimpse of last Thursday's mass caravan action in downtown Chicago featuring Bourbon 'n BrownTown alum Ariel Atkins of Black Lives Matter Chicago.
Let’s not go back to normal.

More COVID-19 Rapid-Response Organizing

Photos by Dakota Sillyman (header) & Caullen Hudson (below)

View more work throughout the years

"Write yourself into history. Not because you're vain, but because you're important, your work is important, you're building off the work of your ancestors, and someone will be building off of yours."
MARIAME KABA | Organizer, Educator, and Curator