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Love > Hope: On Nourishment for Movements
D. Michael Durham D. Michael Durham

Love > Hope: On Nourishment for Movements

Hope may be valid for social-justice movements, but it fails to sustain us. And worse, nonprofit-industrial-complex executives too often weaponize hope to shame underpaid laborers for tapping out in the face of regression. But love is more nourishing sustenance for our movements anyway.

This article draws from abolitionist values that echo the teachings of street outreach practitioners who bear witness to the most profound human suffering and who, like many activists, have every right to despair.

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Lessons on Abolition from Alcoholism
D. Michael Durham D. Michael Durham

Lessons on Abolition from Alcoholism

Free liquor is the best liquor, I used to tell myself. I prefer tequila, gin, and bourbon in that order, but I’d drink the foulest of flavored vodkas if available at no cost. On this particular night, I disliked the flavor of the scotch in my glass, which had been abandoned here as an accidental housewarming gift. Not only did the taste fail to satiate me, so did the inebriation I sought. I expected the shame and physical ailment to wait until morning like usual, but for as-yet unknown reasons, I encountered the despair at night like an unwelcome Santa.

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I Am the River and the Raft
D. Michael Durham D. Michael Durham

I Am the River and the Raft

Hawaii lured my therapist from Nashville. When she told me our therapeutic relationship was about to transition to an LDR, it accelerated my decision about whether to pursue a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) ceremony: September or bust. She recommends it for most of her clients, but I specifically stood to benefit from the prospective treatment of my depression, self-hatred, and the numerous severances within my being that once drove me to alcohol addiction. The cost and scheduling had driven my indecisiveness, but when she informed me her only available date for the three-hour session was September 14, I welcomed the serendipity: that’s my birthday.

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A Short Introduction to Abolition Theology
D. Michael Durham D. Michael Durham

A Short Introduction to Abolition Theology

Someone recently asked me what my religious or spiritual orientation is, an appropriate question in context because we were meeting in relation to a divinity school. I started to tell him I was raised conservative/evangelical/charismatic/nondenominational, that I drifted from that interpretation of Christianity in college, floated around a hipster church in grad school (studying theology), but haven’t been to church in ten years. I told him my recovery community is situated in a Buddhist meditation center, and I love studying that tradition, but feel no need to identify as Buddhist. I am a student of religions, I said, but don’t belong to any particular one. I could feel his dissatisfaction with the ambiguity of this response because I shared that sentiment. Then, I grabbed the book by my desk, Mariame Kaba’s latest tome, and thumping it like a Bible, I told him I wish it sufficed to say that I’m an abolitionist. Kaba’s work is deeply spiritual to me. Abolition is my religion.

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