Its first iteration, LCV hosted events where letters written by prisoners were brought those letters into the public sphere. Participants would read them on the stage and give voice to those letters. It was a powerful experience for everyone involved, with many people understanding for the first time what was actually happening in California’s prisons. Tears were shed.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, we were unable to be in public to do this amazing work and unfortunately, California Prison Focus very soon after was also hacked (we think by the state, but we’re not sure) and its website, and hence its archives, was lost. 

Liberate the Caged Voices could not withstand a Zoom type of format, so we went off-line and became a column in the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, where the Liberate the Caged Voices’ facilitator, Nube Brown, had become a managing editor. 

In our second iteration, LCV’s revealed the realities of the inside through powerful journalistic work– particularly from California’s New Afrikan Political Prisoners, who most people didn’t even know existed – the ongoing genocidal practices of CDCr, including continued solitary confinement, medical neglect and abuse, and numerous parole denials keeping our people unfree.

Liberate the Cage Voices is back in our third and current iteration, continuing the legacy of prisoner solidarity, centering the voices of New Afrikan former and current Political Prisoners.

Join us in following their Prisoner Human Rights Blueprint for self-determination and empowerment and creating a portal between them and We out here, who need their wisdom and lived experience to further our sociopolitical analysis and action and cultural education.