✊ Liberation is Collective

What this Means

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”― Lilla Watson

Liberation isn’t a finish line one person crosses — it’s a door we open together.

It means:

• Our struggles are linked: Racism, ableism, transmisogyny, classism, fatphobia, stigma around sex work — they’re different branches of the same oppressive tree.
• Our victories ripple outward: Every gain in queer rights strengthens trans rights. Every step toward disability justice strengthens racial justice. None of us are free until all of us are free.
• Healing is shared: We don’t just heal as individuals. We heal as communities, when safety and trust allow us to be vulnerable and grow.
• Resistance is amplified: Collective action is louder, stronger, and harder to ignore than one lone voice.

The Systemic Piece

Colonial and capitalist systems thrive on separation. They tell us to compete, not collaborate. They convince us our pain is individual failure, not systemic harm. They push us into silos: queer vs. straight, Black vs. white, disabled vs. abled, worker vs. boss.

That isolation benefits the system. Because if we see ourselves as separate, we don’t rise up together.

At AP, we flip that narrative. We actively weave connections between communities, movements, and struggles. We believe intersectionality isn’t a buzzword, it’s our very survival. Our liberation depends on seeing how our fates are tied together and acting like it.

How We Practice Collective Liberation

How to do it:

• Coalition-building: We link arms with movements for racial justice, trans liberation, sex worker rights, disability justice, and more.
• Centering the most impacted: Liberation begins with those pushed furthest to the margins, not with those already closest to safety.
• Shared resources: From mutual aid to accessible event pricing, we make sure access isn’t gatekept by wealth or privilege.
• Creative resistance: Art, play, celebration, and joy are tools of survival — and we wield them together.
• Education and empowerment: We share knowledge and skills across communities so liberation isn’t just for the “experts.”

Liberation for Volunteers

As a volunteer, you’re not just helping us run events — you’re helping embody what collective liberation looks like in practice. That might mean:

• Welcoming someone who’s never felt safe in a community before.
• Helping make our space accessible so no one’s excluded.
• Understanding that your liberation is bound up in the liberation of others.
• Recognizing that leadership is shared — nobody does this alone.

Every act of volunteering here is part of something bigger. You’re not just giving hours — you’re helping build a culture where we rise together and outlasts a world meant to bring us down.

Liberation in Action

When liberation is collective, the whole space feels different. People breathe easier. Walls come down. There’s more laughter, more art, more connection — because people know they’re not carrying their struggle alone.

And outside of AP, the ripple continues. Volunteers take this value into their families, neighborhoods, movements, and lives. Collective liberation isn’t just a slogan — it’s a practice that spreads.