ACTIVISM
"Artivism is a portmanteau word combining art and activism.”
Cat Brooks is KPFA host of Law & Disorder and a long-time performer, organizer, and activist. She played a central role in the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, and spent the last decade working with impacted communities and families to rapidly respond to police violence and radically transform the ways our communities are policed and incarcerated. She is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) and the Executive Director of The Justice Teams Network. Cat was also the runner-up in Oakland’s 2018 mayoral election, facing incumbent Libby Schaaf.
DefundOPD: Invest in Community:
Our mission is to reduce the Oakland Police Budget by 50% and reinvest that money into alternative non-police programs that can better protect and strengthen our communities. We believe defunding the police is the first step towards abolition.
We envision free mental health clinics, trained mediators, and social workers who are able to respond to emergencies, and EMS & Fire Departments that are not tied to the police force.
MH First, a project of Anti Police-Terror Project, is a cutting-edge new model for non-police response to mental health crisis. The goal of MH First is to respond to mental health crises including, but not limited to, psychiatric emergencies, substance use support, and domestic violence situations that require victim extraction.
Our purpose is to interrupt and eliminate the need for law enforcement in mental health crisis first response by providing mobile peer support, de-escalation assistance, and non-punitive and life-affirming interventions, therefore decriminalizing emotional and psychological crises and decreasing the stigma around mental health, substance use, and domestic violence, while also addressing their root causes: white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism.
ART
Current Projects
Coming Soon: 'Tasha
In 2015, Natasha McKenna was Tased to death in a Fairfax County Virginia jail. Cat Brooks' one woman show 'Tasha tells her story through 6 characters in 60 minutes. 'Tasha won Best of the San Francisco Fringe in 2017 and will have its world premiere with 3 Girls Theatre at Z-Space Below in July of 2022.
