erica riddick (she/they) is a passionate, ambi-brained educator/ritualist, founding director of Jews of Color Sanctuary, and creator of the Bilhah Zilpah Project and Parasha Play. erica is the Jewish Women’s Archive 2022-24 Twersky Education Fellow and Mandel Foundation 2024-26 Teacher Educator Institute Fellow. erica facilitates the Jewish Studio Process, Dismantling Racism from the Inside Out and Changemakers (a peer-supported social entrepreneurial incubator of Realize Change). These projects balance the work of Design Theanthropic, a residential design and renovation initiative, and community action research on projects within beloved communities. When not working, erica adores a good story through reading, watching films, live-action role-playing gaming and performing improv.
Abolition is more than the ending of legalized enslavement. It is a dismantling of institutionalized systems of oppression that enslave, imprison and devalue lives deemed expendable.