Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar November 2018 art by Annie Banks and Mutope Duguma. Annie Banks is an organizer/artist in Berkeley, Calif., on Ohlone territories. Annie is an active member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Anti Police-Terror Project and has been a printmaker since high school. (anniebanks.net) Mutope Duguma was born and raised in Watts, Calif. has been held for 30 years in maximum security prisons where he was given a political education by the many California political prisoners who informed him of national/international politics. This is where he learned about how to resist against state-sanctioned oppression. (mutopeduguma.org). Image courtesy Certain Days.

Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar was produced by activists and organizers based in Montreal, Hamilton, New York, and Baltimore in collaboration with political prisoners currently held in New York State maximum-security prisons—David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes, and Herman Bell. The collective claims to work from an “anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer and trans positive” position.

The theme for Certain Days 2018 is “Awakening Resistance,” and includes art by political prisoners and outside activists and artists, including Marius Mason (left) and Annie Banks and Mutope Duguma (right). The artwork is accompanied by writing from activists on the prison system, racial profiling, the alt-right, indigenous struggles, and more; plus moments from movement history marked within the calendar dates. The proceeds from Certain Days 2018 go to Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association in Palestine, Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP), and other organizations. For more information, visit certaindays.org.

A launch for Certain Days 2018 will take place at Red Emma’s (30 W. North Ave., [443] 602-7585, redemmas.org) on Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. with a panel talk featuring former political prisoner and Real News Network producer and host Eddie Conway, former ELF political prisoner and Certain Days collective member Daniel McGowan, and a recently-acquitted J20 defendant from Baltimore. The event will also include a discussion on political prisoner David Gilbert’s new book, “Looking at the US White Working Class Historically.”

Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar August 2018 art by Marius Mason. Mason is an anarchist, environmentalist, and animal rights activist serving nearly 22 years in federal prison for acts of property damage carried out in defense of the planet. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to arson at a university lab researching GMOs for Monsanto and admitted to 12 other acts of property damage. He is incarcerated in FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. Marius came out as transgender in 2014. He changed his name (though not yet legally), uses male pronouns, and in 2016 received a medical diagnosis allowing him to receive hormone therapy. (supportmariusmason.org). Image courtesy Certain Days.

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