Join us for an in-person book talk with Derecka Purnell on her newest book, Becoming Abolitionists. Drawing from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition, Purnell charts her journey to her realization that the police were a placebo. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing. This book spans not only Purnell’s experience, but also a long history of social movements rooted in rebellion and revolutionary love that pushed a generation of activists towards abolition, from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place. She will be joined in conversation by Dr. Nyle Fort, organizer and postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University.