We celebrate Juneteenth and five years of Abolitionist Sanctuary by telling the truth about how freedom gets reclaimed through sisterhood, legacy, and community care. We name what it takes to protect Black mothers from punishment-first systems and why faith-based abolition has to look like real support, not shame. 

• introducing Reverend Dr Najuma Smith Pollard and Candace Benbow and grounding in faith, abolition, and Black motherhood 
• sharing pronouns, what we’re wearing, and naming our people as a practice of presence 
• catching up on current priorities, creativity, parenting, peace, and joy as survival 
• reflecting on vision boards, courage, and betting on ourselves beyond credentials 
• unpacking what Juneteenth means amid recalling, contradiction, and commodification 
• remembering founding board service and why Black women saying yes matters 
• honoring our mamas, grief, gratitude, and the complexity of Black mother daughter bonds 
• naming the criminalization of Black motherhood and rejecting carceral “solutions” 
• lifting up abolitionist virtues like compassion, care, courage, creativity, and community 
• making the case for training, funding, and building sanctuaries nationwide 

As we close, please download and share on all platforms. You can follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and download our social mobile app. Also enroll in our courses at abolitionacademy.com and become certified. Don't forget to become a member and subscribe to our mailing list at abolitionistsctuary.org. 

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We talk with Leslie Campbell about surviving abuse, being incarcerated as a mother, and rebuilding a life through education, faith, and community. We name the harm mass incarceration does to families and push for a world where Black women are believed, protected, and free to thrive. 
• Leslie’s testimony of self-defense, incarceration, and finding a way forward 
• Education as the turning point for voice, self-esteem, and reentry success 
• What Leslie sees when bringing hope and resources into women’s facilities 
• Realities of incarceration at Rikers and upstate, including prison labor 
• The impact of separation on children, mothers, and extended family caregivers 
• Reentry guilt, family alienation, and the trauma of reunification 
• Faith as survival in solitary confinement and a guide for restoration 
• Practical ways churches can support incarcerated people and returning citizens 
• Encouragement for mothers to practice grace and release perfection myths 
Please download and share on all platforms. 
Follow us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and download our social mobile app. 
Download the Abolitionist Sanctuary Social Mobile app. 
Also enroll in our courses and become certified at abolitionacademy.com. 
Don't forget to become a member and subscribe to our mailing list at abolitionistsanctuary.org. 

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Monuments, memory, and movement power collide when we sit down with Pastor William Lamar IV of Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. We start with Abolition April and why faith-based abolition cannot stay theoretical when regressive policies and public violence keep targeting Black communities, especially Black women. From the first minutes, this conversation is clear: abolition is not only a practice, it is a way of life that forms what we believe, how we worship, and how we organize.

Pastor Lamar takes us deep into the spiritual technology of ancestral veneration through his book “Ancestors: The Names That Bless Us, Curse Us, and Hold Us.” We unpack the difference between ancestors of light who bless and hold us and “shadow ancestors” whose energy can reinforce white supremacist culture, even through the architecture and rituals of Washington, DC. We also talk theology with our whole chest, from unlearning who is “in our head” when we read scripture to challenging harmful church teachings like gendering God and the violent logic of penal substitutionary atonement.

Then we get concrete about strategy: how to organize in an authoritarian political climate without being rattled into burnout, what it meant for Metropolitan AME to sue after the Proud Boys attack, and why building power is not optional. We close with hard-won fundraising and philanthropy lessons on relational grantmaking, transparency, and expanding the table so the work can last.

Subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review to help more people find this faith-based abolitionist conversation, then tell us in the comments: what would an abolitionist sanctuary look like in your city?

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Start with open windows, end with open hands. We sit down with Rev. Dr. Renita Weems—writer, AME elder, and pioneering biblical scholar—to trace the unlikely roads from paper dolls and public libraries to Princeton and the pulpit. She takes us into the classrooms and kitchens that mothered her, the librarians who handed her systems and keys, and the teachers who crossed boundaries to keep a brilliant, mouthy teenager from disappearing. What emerges is a map of how ordinary people and imperfect institutions become sanctuaries.

We go deep on womanism—both the folk wisdom and the academic methodology. Renita names it as an unapologetic commitment to Black women’s thriving, with labels that signal our politics and hold us accountable. She pushes past caricatures of elitism and the “mean elder” trope, inviting a sharper critique of systems—patriarchy, misogyny, white supremacy—rather than personalities. The conversation also confronts the Bible’s patriarchy without flinching, while still mining its poetry and resistance for today’s struggles, especially where Black mothers are punished for surviving.

When the topic turns to calling, Renita reframes ministry as elder work: walking with people in grief, crisis, and ambiguity, not performing on a platform. She mourns how easily we discard the Black church, even as its songs, casseroles, and stubborn love continue to steady us in surgery rooms and sorrow. Through stories of mentors, tough love, and intergenerational repair, we explore how to be mothered—and motherable—so that movements gain discipline without losing joy.

If you’re hungry for a conversation that is tender, rigorous, and unafraid—about faith, womanism, Black motherhood, and the craft of surviving with your soul intact—press play. Then share it with the teacher, coach, or church mother who kept your window to the world wide open.

Subscribe, rate, and leave a review. Share this episode with a friend who needs courage today.

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We trace Black history as living resistance, linking Reconstruction to today’s bans and misinformation while centering Henry McNeal Turner’s radical theology and the Colored Conventions as blueprints for action. Faith, rhetoric, and archives become tools to confront white Christian nationalism and build abolitionist sanctuaries.

• significance of Black History Month amid erasure
• Reconstruction as a mirror for current politics
• rhetorical strategies for truth in a noisy age
• Africa as origin and identity anchor
• Henry McNeal Turner’s evolution and legacy
• women’s influence in AME leadership and ministry
• “God is a Negro” as liberating claim today
• abolition as faith practice and community design
• the 19th‑century Colored Conventions movement
• current books, research, and ways to support

Download the Abolitionist Sanctuary app and apply to become a member on our social platform
Please download and share on all platforms
Email us to join our newsletter
Enroll in our courses and become certified at abolitionacademy.com
Become a member and subscribe to our mailing list at abolitionistsanctuary.org

Support the show

Sign-up and join a social media platform for abolitionists
Enroll to take courses at Abolition Academy
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel