The Organizing Committee of the Ann Snitow Prize is thrilled to name Mariame Kaba its third annual honoree. The $10,000 award recognizes a feminist of outstanding vision, originality, generosity, and effectiveness, whose work combines intellectual and/or artistic pursuits with feminist and social justice activism. As an organizer, educator, archivist, curator, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice, Kaba powerfully embodies the values of the prize. She walks the often difficult walk of these interconnected movements, keeping one eye on the harms of the world we live in and the other the world we want to live in—one of mutuality, care, justice, and happiness.
The 2022 Award Ceremony took place via Zoom on December 14 at 6 PM EST.
Kaba is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots abolitionist organization with a vision to end youth incarceration. She is a co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization, the Chicago Freedom School, Survived and Punished, and most recently Sojourners for Justice Press, a Black feminist abolitionist micro-press. She is also the author of the New York Times bestseller We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice and co-author of No More Police: A Case for Abolition with Andrea J. Ritchie.
“I am incredibly honored to have been nominated for and to actually be awarded with the Ann Snitow Prize,” says Kaba. “Like Ann, I believe that feminism is ever evolving and changing, which means that there’s room for constant experimentation and also for fun. I hope to continue to push forward in her legacy.”
Kaba was selected by judges Lori Adelman, Marika Cifor, Sam Huber, Carolyn McConnell, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Kaba’s work exemplifies the combination of intellectual and activist heft that the Ann Snitow Prize aims to recognize,” says Huber. “Her beautifully written and powerfully argued essays and books have done much to establish feminism and PIC abolition as mutually dependent projects; the model of her own organizing has perhaps done even more. She’s helped me and many others reconceive the role of activism itself—the importance of engaging directly in politics with others—in our thinking and dreaming about a better world.”
Sarah Schulman, winner of the 2021 Ann Snitow Prize, adds that Kaba “is known as a peacemaker and a generous colleague. She is constantly championing and mentoring individuals and communities. Her writings are widely read—especially among young activists. She is a public intellectual and activist who has not been commodified or branded.”
Kaba intends to use the award to donate to BxRebirth, a collective of Black moms and caregivers that donates diapers, formula, and doula services to families in the Bronx, and to the micro-press Sojourners for Justice.
We extend our congratulations to Mariame and our gratitude to the judges, the members of the Organizing Committee and the Nominating Committee, and our generous donors.
The Ann Snitow Prize 