Wednesday, August 19th: Shut Rikers Meetings
Join us next Wednesday, August 19th at 6 pm in downtown Brooklyn for our Shut Rikers Meeting. We’re coming together with neighbors to collectively build community-based power to shut down the jail complex once and for all. In these meetings, we come together with our neighbors to build community-based power to shut down the jail complex. We spend time powermapping the Mamdani administration and city council, discussing action steps we can take together, and more.
To attend our next Shut Rikers meeting this Wednesday, August 19th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm, register here.
If you have any questions, please contact Melanie at Melanie@katalcenter.org.
The Upcoming Elections and the Fight for Democracy
With the midterm elections just around the corner, we’re thinking a lot about democracy — not just voting, but how we come together to protect our democracy against authoritarian attacks.
Back in April, the Reuters news agency published a remarkable — and alarming — investigative report: How Trump is moving to control U.S. elections, one state at a time. The report outlines a state-focused strategy to keep people from voting, control the results of the elections, and to seize and hold power.
What states in particular? Read the Reuters article, then check out the Voting Rights Lab’s 2026 Election Risk Heat Map, a “data-driven tool designed to identify where the conditions for election crises are most likely to emerge this year.”
Fortunately, people around the country are in motion together to fight back and demand: hands off our vote!
The team at Indivisible has launched the Hands Off Our Vote program, to “ensure all eligible voters get to cast their ballot, and that those ballots get counted.” They’re helping folks get ready locally for any attacks on the election process, and they’ll help shine a light on the bad actors threatening our basic constitutional rights. Check it out.
If you’re in NYC, check out Hands Off NYC, to connect with a city-wide movement working to bring New Yorkers together.
We’ll continue sharing updates about the fight against authoritarianism, including ways to plug in with us here at Katal.
Wednesday, September 2nd: International Overdose Action Day
For International Overdose Awareness Day on September 2nd — we’re joining VOCAL-NY, the Drug Policy Alliance, and others to demand action. Register here to join us.
In the US, overdose rates are dropping, but that decline isn’t reaching Black, brown, and low-income communities equally. And, the Trump administration is using real concerns about drugs and overdose to justify unpopular, illegal, authoritarian actions at home and abroad.
One year ago, the federal government began illegal boat strikes, escalating the drug war under the guise of the overdose crisis while defunding the very programs that save lives. Since September 2, 2025, the federal administration has unlawfully killed over 220 people on fishing boats in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At the same time, the administration is dismantling federal agencies, cutting healthcare coverage and food supports, attacking and defunding proven solutions like harm reduction and housing, and shifting toward criminalizing people rather than providing care.
For the 25th anniversary of International Overdose Awareness Day, we’re taking action and calling on the US government to end the strikes and fund care — not war.
- WHAT: International Overdose Action Day: No More Strikes & Stop the Killings in Our Name — Rally & Press Conference
- WHEN: September 2nd @ 10:30am meet up
- WHERE: UN Protest Plaza (47th and 2nd St)
- RSVP here
If you would like to join us for the action or have any questions, please contact Yonah at yonah@katalcenter.org.
Save the Date: September Statewide Criminal Justice Reform
Our summer hiatus is almost over and our next NY Statewide Criminal Justice Reform Call is on Thursday, September 10th, at noon! Register here to join.
Following last year’s wildcat strike and the brutal murders of Robert Brooks and Messiah Nantwi, the state hired a prominent law firm to do a “top to bottom” review of DOCCS. Last month, the state-commissioned outside probe issued a 277-page report which found that a culture of fear, outdated training, chronic understaffing, poor oversight and weak accountability have left incarcerated people feeling unsafe. This remains a critical issue going into the next legislative session.
On the September call, we’ll discuss the June primary results, the upcoming November election, and what to expect in the upcoming 2027 legislative session. As usual, we’ll also hear from organizers and advocates working across the state on criminal justice reform efforts.
Register here to join us on September 10th, from noon to 1 p.m.
If you have any questions about the statewide call or would like to be a presenter, please contact Yonah at Yonah@katalcenter.org.
Thank you Salehmat and Mariam
Today is the last day of Salehmat and Mariam’s internship at Katal. They interned with us as part of the Social Change Fellows at the Leadership, Social Justice, and Democracy Institute at CUNY. Throughout the summer they engaged in doorknocking, flyering, tabling, research, news tracking and more.
We wish them the best as Mariam enters her senior year and Salehmat enters her junior year at City College!
Quotes of the Week
“You don’t get to choose the time you live in. But you do get to choose who you want to be, and what you want to think.”
– Grace Lee Boggs
“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.”
– bell hooks
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Katal works to develop intergenerational leadership and organizing capacity to build community-based power and win systemic change for equity, health, and justice.
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Email: info@katalcenter.org
Phone: 646.875.8822