Freedom to Grow

Building on a legacy of work that includes Solitary Gardens and the Abolitionist’s Sanctuary, we grow gardens that connect outside volunteers with incarcerated Solitary Gardeners. By designing 6’x9’ beds in the footprint of a solitary confinement cell, their stories become alive through their thoughtful care as they select for function and meaning of the plants in their beds. 

Our gardens fuel our Abolitionist’s Apothecary, which provides sliding-scale herbal wellness support, allowing our Solitary Gardeners an opportunity to heal the communities to which they will hopefully return.

Our three-year vision is to establish the Museum for Abolition and Beyond at the John Thompson Legacy Center (JTLC). Rooted in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans, the JTLC has long operated as a community center for movement work. We are expanding the mission of the space to highlight the under-told histories of resistance on the land now occupied by the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Within the museum, artists interpret archives through creative practice, while gardens embody them as living, ecological storybooks.

As we establish two new Legacy Gardens on St. Bernard Ave alongside the Legacy Center, their design will reflect the lessons, stories, and wonder contained within the Museum for Abolition and Beyond. 

We define abolition as a living, evolving practice of responding to harm without creating more, a daily practice of rewiring our actions from punitive and punishing to reparative and loving. We recognize artists as vital messengers in the struggle for abolition. Through art, narratives rooted in justice and care can reach those who are otherwise unwilling to engage with abolitionist ideas and teachings, inspiring transformation. And, we believe that plants are storytellers and healers that provide the blueprint for solutions to our most entrenched crises.