SAW: SoapBox Action Works
SoapBox Action Works (SAW) consults, document, amplifies, and partners with grassroots organizations and other non-profits to tell their stories of their campaigns and people through a cinematic lens. SoapBox consistently explores possibilities with different groups that share our ideals and vision locally, regionally, and globally. Watch, listen, read, and interact with our featured multimedia projects' pages and our rapid-response videos below.
Featured Multimedia Projects
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S U M M E R 2 0 2 0
From moment to movement. Since the murder of George Floyd at the end of May, cities including Chicago rose up to demand an end to police violence. Not only is the government standing by as COVID-19 ravages Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities—inciting mass Black death with their calls to reopen the economy, but the police and racist vigilantes continue to brazenly hunt and kill Black folks while they sleep in their beds and on open roads in broad daylight. 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.
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Words by Damon Williams, Editing by Sensitive Visuals, Photos by Love & Struggle Photos, Music by Rebel Diaz, Footage by SoapBox & Equals 4 Media
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The struggle continues...
By fall 2020, individual organizers and organizations working on police abolition and Black liberation for years joined forces to create the Black Abolitionist Network and the #DefundCPD campaign calling for a 75% divestment from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to community services. During a summer of power-building, mass consciousness shift, and social unrest, CPD and other state agents across the nation were especially violent and brutal towards protestors and everyday people demanding radical change. In Chicago, this brought forth a lawsuit with the city. Watch below.
Protestors v. City of Chicago |
#DefundCPD |
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Rapid-Response Actions
during COVID-19
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End IL Prison LockdownDecember 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
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#FreeThemAllBlockPartyMay 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!
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#RightToRelief CaravanMay 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. |
