These communal spaces and networks are not merely about catharsis, though — they hold the keys to our collective survival. In 2021, when The Intercept asked abolitionist and organizer Mariame Kaba how she thinks about the power of mutual aid networks (or lack thereof) — after the government’s massive failure to address COVID-19 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and left even more in poverty — Kaba did not articulate despair. She articulated hope. “I’m more committed than ever to that project,” she said. “Because I know for a fact that this is what kept many people alive in our communities. It was people, on the one hand, offering aid, and then folks learning to know each other, building with their neighbors, people being awakened through those actions to the broader systemic reasons for why we were in the positions that we were in,” she said. “I see that people are really open to many more radical solutions for things.”
