There are three ways we’re asking you to celebrate Laura:
- Attend a Zoom Celebration of Laura Magnani at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, Sunday, October 4, 2020. Register here.
- Contribute in Laura's honor to the AFSC California Healing Justice Program (our goal is $20,000). Will you become one of 30 new monthly donors (one for every year of Laura’s service to AFSC)?
- Share a Memory of Laura (see below).
Prisons have always housed the people we wouldn’t make room for in our society.
It’s shocking. It’s stark. It’s shameful.
The trouble is, it’s hard not to get used to it over time. Please don’t get used to it.
- Laura Magnani
"Love in the Belly of the Beast," a presentation at the 2014 Friends General Conference
In September 2020, Laura Magnani will retire from her work for the American Friends Service Committee’s Healing Justice program. (This is her second retirement, but she says she really means it this time.).
Over 30 years of her AFSC work on prison reform and abolition, Laura has contributed to extraordinary transformations. The problem of incarceration has become more widely recognized, reform has started, and the movement’s leadership now includes a number of formerly incarcerated people.
Laura has been a tireless advocate, facilitator, and strategic organizer. She will be missed, but she has mentored many young people who are equipped to continue the struggle.
Many thanks,
On behalf of the Laura Magnani Celebration Committee: Carol Johnson Bichsel, Jay Conner, Jerry Elster, Connie Jolly, Paul Jolly, Dorothy Kakimoto, Naneen Karraker, Fatimeh Khan, Matthew Leber, Heather Levien, John Lindsay-Poland, Deborah Marks, Jihan McDonald.
How to share a memory of Laura:
Send Naneen and/or Dorothy a letter, poem, photo, picture, etc. focused on your shared experiences (it can be up to one page, front and back).
8 1/2 X 11-inch format (letter sized), one-inch margin, and large enough print for everyone to read comfortably.
Indicate in the upper right-hand corner the approximate year(s) you are sharing about since these will be arranged chronologically.
Please submit them by Saturday, September 5, 2020.
If you wish for your sharing to be private, please let Naneen and Dorothy know. We may have a public portion of the book that can be shared with other friends and donors, and a private portion which will be for Laura only.
We hope that this will be an opportunity to show gratitude for her life and work while reflecting on her accomplishments and on the work that is still ahead of us.