The Color out Cash Bail coloring book was dreamed up in August 2019 by a group of Richmond SONG members – Jasmine Leeward, Micky Jordan and Laura Chow Reeve – dreaming of ways to support community learning and conversation about ending cash bail and pretrial detention in Virginia. A coloring book was chosen to showcase the power of art and culture, as well as to share information in a fun, accessible, and beautiful way.
Color out Cash Bail was supported by the Southerners on New Ground Membership Initiated Projects (MIP) program. Selected by the membership spokescouncil in the Fall of 2019, the MIP award allowed organizers to pay Virginian, Southern, BIPOC, and Queer and Trans artists to bring this vision to life, in addition to printing 300 copies to distribute to teachers, organizers, community organizations, and SONG members throughout the state and South. It is also available as a free download for anyone who wants to use it for political and popular education, base building, and organizing around cash bail, pretrial detention, prison abolition, and liberation for our people. Color these pages and tag @coloroutcashbail on Instagram to talk about what you learned!
The 22-coloring pages cover topics on:
- An introduction to cash bail and pretrial detention
- The impacts of cash bail and pretrial detention for Virginians, particularly Black Virginians
- Celebrating Black Mama bailouts
- How cash bail and pretrial detention, and incarceration more broadly, connect to: immigrant detention and the violence of ICE, patriarchal violence and the punishment of survivors, surveillance technology and e-carceration, and more.
- Responding to our current moment of the COVID-19 pandemic and abolitionist calls to #DefundThePolice and #FreeThemAll
- A celebration and vision of queer family, collective liberation, and a world without chains
Also please join the organizers for a 3 part series of teach-ins to dive deep into the importance of art in our movement to end the criminalization of our communities, what campaigns and organizing can look like, and how we can bring this tool into schools!
- October 3, 2020 – Color out of Cash Bail: Art in the Movement [Watch Teach-In]
- October 10, 2020 – Color out of Cash Bail: In the Classroom [Watch Teach-In]
- October 17, 2020 – Color out of Cash Bail: A Tool for Organizing [Watch Teach-in]
We are so excited to share this resource and the beautiful work of our 22 artists with you. And, while we want to make this resource free for download, we encourage folks to donate $5-$20 to and/or join an organization fighting to free our people if you are able and feel moved after downloading the coloring book. Here are a few orgs to consider:
- La ColectiVA
- The Free them All Virginia Fund
- Roanoke Jail Solidarity
- Survived and Punished
- Richmond Community Bail Fund
