Lina Khoeur '18

This summer, I have had the privilege of working with Asian Prisoner Support Committee, currently the only organization in the nation that works to provide culturally competent support specifically for incarcerated API communities. Through APSC, I’ve been able to work with organizations on both local and state government, but the most important work I’ve been able to do is the class we facilitate in San Quentin State Prison: Restoring Our Original and True Selves (ROOTS). In ROOTS, we work with lifers on topics like acculturation, intergenerational trauma, and histories of colonization, specifically in relation to Southeast Asian identity. This work has been transformative, not only for them, but also for me - being able to talk with people who have spent years going through the same struggles that I am going through continues to provide more for both of us than we could have ever imagined. During our classes, and during my internship, I talked with and organized with so many people from so many different stages of the process. I got to grow with people who were just starting their organizing journey, collaborate with people who have been doing this work for decades, and share with people who are still dealing with the worst repercussions of an unjust institutionalized system. Being in this space both challenged and expanded my ideas of community and solidarity, and gave me the space to feel grounded in my own identity, privilege, and power. Organizing in these intersectional spaces continues to push my boundaries of understanding gender, ageism, culture, and many other identities, all compounded with the incarcerated state. Doing this work has allowed me to see how those labeled as “other” continue to resist, grow, and fight for change.