Imaging Safety Without Punishment: The Criminalization of Self Defense

Ky Peterson, Co-founder of Freedom Overground

Meg Stone, Executive Director of IMPACT Boston

This panel will be moderated by Jaden Cervantes-Fields, Co-Director of Mirror Memoirs and CJ Jackson, Development Director of Mirror Memoirs.

PANELISTS BIOS:

Wriply Marie Bennet is a proud self-taught illustrator and activist/organizer born and raised in Ohio. Her art and organizing work started with the Trans Women of Color Collective and expanded in Ferguson when she and a few other freedom riders traveled to stand with the family and community of Mike Brown. In 2017, Wriply co-created an action at Stonewall’s Pride Parade in Columbus, Ohio, which birthed the name Black Pride 4. In August 2020, she co-founded THORN, a grassroots collective in Chicago arming Black & brown trans folks, prioritizing trans women, sex workers, & disabled people.

Ky Peterson grew up in a small South Georgia farming town. Ky loves to stay busy. Even as a child, Ky worked hard to help his family and in his free time, he volunteered at a local assisted living home, and the American Red Cross. Ky Peterson is a trans Advocate who served 9 years in prison for self-defense. During his incarceration, he fought for trans prisoner's rights to medical care. Ky is vibrant, intelligent, and uncommonly kind with a genuinely loving nature, and a passion for promoting Human Rights and Transgender Equality. His story is entrenched in institutionalized discrimination, systemic failures, and the denial of basic human rights. Ky's experiences with the criminal justice system epitomize the complex intersection of contemporary race and gender politics within the prison industrial complex. In 2017, Ky co-founded Freedom Overground with his partner, Pinky Shear. Today, Ky shares his story of courage and perseverance with TGNC communities across the country.

Meg Stone has been the Executive Director of IMPACT Boston since 2005, an organization that works to prevent violence and abuse by giving people the skills to advocate for healthy relationships, sexual respect, and personal and community safety. She has created customized safety training programs for schools, community groups, workplaces, and activists. She has led organizational abuse prevention initiatives in schools, disability services, sports, and performing arts. She is the author of two books, The Cost of Fear: Why Most Safety Advice is Sexist and How We Can Stop Gender-based Violence and “Don’t Figh Back” and 10 Other Myths About Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-based Violence. Meg is a recipient of the Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and was chosen by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an expert panelist aiding in the development of their standards for preventing sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations. Her writing has been published in Huffington Post, Newsweek, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Dame, and Ms.

MODERATORS BIOS:

Jaden Cervantes-Fields is a Los Angeles-based organizer, cultural worker, and educator dedicated to cultivating healing-centered spaces for marginalized communities. He joined the staff in December 2020, but as a survivor storyteller in the archive since 2017, Jaden has played a pivotal role in co-designing Mirror Memoirs’ strategic vision, programs, and structure. Jaden’s work as a board and staff member of several grassroots and nonprofit organizations has included designing and leading programs for trans folks to access health services, training government agencies to better serve transgender people, participatory action research, and policy advocacy at the city and county level. Jaden was an inaugural member of the Los Angeles Transgender Advisory Council, a 2017 California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Fellow, a 2019 Echoing Green finalist, a 2021 Solis Policy Institute Fellow at the Women’s Foundation of California and a 2021 John W. Mack Movement Building Fellow at the Weingart Foundation. He was also the Board member for the Level Ground, an arts collective and incubator based in Los Angeles. Jaden is a performance poet and frequent keynote speaker, including 2020 talks at the #MeTooLGBTQ conference by San Diego Pride, at the #MeToo Movement Survivor Summit, and at Lambda LitFest. In 2019, he self-published his first chapbook, Intentional Musings on Staying Alive When I Want To Die, an honest depiction of navigating mental health disabilities and systemic oppression. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California.

CJ Jackson is a passionate community builder and advocate, deeply inspired by his family’s legacy of activism and a lifelong commitment to uplifting marginalized voices. As a transgender man, he uses his lived experiences to guide his work, ensuring collective empowerment, authenticity, and equity remain at the heart of his approach. Across all his roles, CJ emphasizes relationship-building, authenticity, and equity. CJ views his work as an opportunity to align resources with social change and healing. He approaches fundraising as a relationship-centered practice, emphasizing transparency, collaboration, and equity. CJ earned a BA in English with a focus on Journalism and a minor in Communications from Old Dominion University, along with a Diversity Studies Certificate. He is motivated by a belief in the power of storytelling and community and works to help people feel seen, supported, and valued.

EVENT SPONSORS:
Mirror Memoirs is a national storytelling and organizing project intervening in rape culture by uplifting the narratives, healing and leadership of Two Spirit, transgender, non-binary, intersex and/or queer Black, Indigenous and of color survivors of child sexual abuse.

IMPACT Boston works to prevent violence and abuse by giving people the tools to protect their safety and advocate for healthy relationships and sexual respect in their communities and society. IMPACT has been teaching solutions for safe living since 1971. Providing realistic personal safety training that gives people the skills to respond appropriately to threatening situations in the moment of fear or intimidation.

ACCESSIBILITY:
This event will be recorded and shared with all who register.