This Abolitionist’s Tea Party is a workshop facilitated by artist jackie sumell (2020 Grantee) in collaboration with the Lower Eastside Girls Club and their installation in MoMA’s Creativity Lab. Historically, plants have been part of resistance movements, communicating freedom and liberation. The Abolitionist’s Tea Party will ask, “How does the natural world endorse abolition as a strategy for liberation?” Facilitated by sumell and youth from the Lower Eastside Girls Club, participants will circle up, taste, feel, and smell different plants that were grown on the Lower Eastside Girls Club’s rooftop garden, many of which are considered “weeds.” Participants will collectively define and share their experience and understanding of abolition and, together, will ask the plants how they endorse those ideas.

This 90-minute, in-person program is free and open to anyone who is invested in thinking about prison abolition. This workshop takes place in person at MoMA. To keep the workshop intimate, capacity is limited and registration is required.