FLM’s 2025 was a spectacular feat of Afrofuturism and Sankofa. At first glance, these frameworks may seem like opposing symbols, but they are unified in an abolitionist timeline—one that understands the past as a present reality that informs our future. As abolitionist organizers, we are time travelers; we build the future with every strategy we execute.
We return to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense’s Free Breakfast Program, founded in 1969, and transplant its spirit into 2025 Eastside, Oklahoma City. We build the trust necessary for transformative justice that will, one day, make prisons obsolete. In the present, we rupture the pillars of the carceral state with every person trained in the Indigenous practices of circle-keeping and community healing.
When we say the 1 in 2 Campaign “liberates the narrative,” we mean it literally. Carceral narratives are chained mindsets—punishment masquerading as accountability, when its true function is control. Our narrative organizing pushes us to collectively view our neighbors as ourselves, even—and especially—when they cause harm. It demands we value them as human beings worthy of redemption, not a cage.
Our Pillars of Liberation
We anchor our work in three pillars that, together, cultivate liberation:
• Education: The bedrock of our work and the original radical dream that flows through all our efforts.
• Organizing: The force that builds people power and tends the soil, making it ripe for social change.
• Programming: Our visionary practice—the space where we pilot our wildest dreams.
Thank you to every partner, comrade, and friend who supports this work and picks up the slack where we fall short. You make this difficult labor feel like a shared joy. Thank you to the community members who have found a home in our projects. Our love is embedded in this organization; as FLM grows, we will continue to look back at the snapshots of the past that created our future.
With radical love and care,
aurelius,
FLM Co-Founders
Tevin, and Alham
June 24, 1998 ~ January 8, 2026
For the second time in our three years of creating these Impact Reports, we hold space to pay tribute to a friend and comrade who is no longer with us. Adriana Laws was the fiercest organizer and advocate we ever met. She was a unique blend of fire, passion, lived experience, and unabashed Black joy. She was unafraid to speak truth, even when it was hard, creating programming and campaigns that met people’s immediate needs while radicalizing their understanding of the world. She was the epitome of a grassroots power builder.
Adriana was a loving mother; living in her memory is her daughter, Kerensa, who could often be found at Justice for Julius protests shouting “FREE JULIUS!” Kerensa was born into the movement and is already a powerhouse. She will forever be loved and supported by the community that loved her mama.
Adriana was just 27 years old. These words are incredibly hard to write. The work we do—and that Adriana did better than any of us—is freedom work. It is about dismantling the systems of oppression that perpetuate hate and violence to create communities of justice and care in their wake. This work, where we swim in the belly of the beast of racial capitalism, is excruciating. There are beautiful moments and wins, but most days are incomprehensibly hard. And yet, she laughed. She sang and danced. She held space for the trauma of others even while wading through her own. She embodied power.
In 2023 and 2024, Adriana was FLM’s closest partner. Through her work with the Civic Learning Coalition, we engaged in training and canvassing across the state of Oklahoma. Together, we launched the Youth Action Institute with Rose State College students, training them to be the next generation of organizers. Adriana began her own social justice journey at Rose State and felt a deep call to pour back into the students there—so we said yes. We followed her lead happily, just as she championed our programs in return.
We look back fondly on our time together at Scissortail and Edwards Parks, passing out flyers for the 1 in 2 Campaign and talking with Oklahomans about the realities of incarceration. Adriana approached every conversation with her signature enthusiasm, even with those who disagreed with us. She was truly without fear.
Many of us will remember her most clearly on a somber morning in 2021 in McAlester, Oklahoma—just blocks from the state penitentiary where Julius Darius Jones was scheduled to be executed. Adriana kept our spirits high, leading chants and playing music against the weight of that day. When the news finally broke that his life would be spared, she collapsed in tears of pure decompression. We danced, sang, and rejoiced for Julius, the Jones family, and the entire movement—a movement Adriana poured her entire soul into.
A person only truly dies when we no longer speak their name. We will continue to lift up Adriana’s memory and her work. We hope you will join us by telling your people you love them, by wrapping your community in solidarity, and by showing up in times of need. Hold onto her laughter; uplift her voice.
We love you, Adriana. Forever in our memories—a life lived for freedom.
Our Pillars of Liberation
To reach liberation, we must first lay the bedrock of Education, cultivate the soil through Organizing, and plant the seeds of our visionary Programming. Together, these three pillars form a bridge across time—carrying the wisdom of our ancestors into the reality of a liberated tomorrow.
Education: The Bedrock of Radical Dreaming
Education is the foundation of every strategy we execute. In 2025, our educational initiatives were designed to sharpen our collective tools for liberation—moving beyond theory and into the ancestral and Indigenous practices that sustain us. We believe that to build the future, we must first equip our community with the skills to govern themselves, heal each other, and disrupt the systems that cause us harm.
Through a diverse array of workshops and deep-dive cohorts, we trained hundreds of students, faith leaders, and organizers to “liberate the narrative” and expand the footprint of transformative justice across Oklahoma and beyond.
2025 Training & Workshop Highlights:
Transformative Justice & Healing: We deepened our commitment to Indigenou practices through 8 SAFE Commune Cohort sessions, mastering circle-keeping, pod mapping, and creative interventions. We extended this work through 6 specialized TJ trainings with partners like YWCA OKC, Commonwealth Urban Farms, and Northeast Missionary Baptist Church.
Youth & Student Organizing: We took our “time-traveling” mission to the next generation, conducting 3 Community Organizing trainings for students at Douglass High School, UCO, and OU, as well as an Abolition 101 Training at Northeastern University in Boston.
Narrative & Civic Power: We challenged the status quo at Civics Con and Muslim Day at the Capitol with our Building a Liberatory Narrative workshops.
Strategic Resistance: We strengthened our defense of the community through specialized training with the Community Response Network on disrupting ICE interventions.
Organizing: Tending the Soil of Social Change
Community organizing is the force that turns our radical dreams into reality. In 2025, we focused on “liberating the narrative” by meeting our neighbors exactly where they are—on their doorsteps, in city council chambers, and in the courtroom. We believe that people power is the only force capable of disrupting the carceral state and cultivating a landscape where every Oklahoman can thrive.
This year, our organizing efforts spanned from the local grassroots of Oklahoma City to the national stage, proving that the hunger for abolition and transformative justice knows no borders. And like everything in life, none of this would be possible without the unwavering support of our coalition, partners, and allies standing beside us.
2025 Organizing & Advocacy Highlights:
The 1 in 2 Campaign Goes National: We took our mission to Northeastern University Law School in Boston, screening Charles’ story and leading deep-dive sessions on the Black Radical Tradition. Locally, we brought these critical conversations to Civics Con and Muslim Day at the Capitol.
The Home Base & People’s Budget Coalition: For the second year, we fought for a Participatory Budget in Oklahoma. We saw significant shifts in the halls of power, with multiple City Councilors now publicly championing participatory budgeting as a solution to systemic inequity. Through our Home Team Reading Group, we continued to provide the intellectual and community space needed to sustain this long-term struggle.
Death Penalty Abolition: We celebrate a monumental victory for life — Tremane Wood’s life was saved from the state’s machinery of death. While we continue to mourn those we lost to the carceral system this year, Tremane’s survival fuels our commitment to ending the death penalty once and for all.
Survivor Justice: We began 2025 in a Seminole County courtroom to witness a historic moment—Lisa Moss is FREE, following the first resentencing hearing under the Survivor Justice Act. While we celebrate Lisa’s freedom, the fight remains urgent as we continue to organize for April Wilkens, Tyesha Long, Erica Harrison, and all criminalized survivors still waiting for the justice they are due.
Programming: Practicing Our Wildest Dreams
Programming is where our theories take shape and our radical imagination becomes reality. In 2025, our programs served as living laboratories for the future we want to inhabit.
2025 Programming & Direct Impact:
We, the Eastside & The Free Breakfast Program: We honored the legacy of revolutionary care by feeding 446 young people through our Free Breakfast Program. Our commitment to the neighborhood was literal and physical; we walked the blocks and knocked on 1,490 doors, building direct relationships and “tending the soil” of our community.
SAFE Commune & Transformative Justice: We expanded our healing network by training 9 Transformative Justice practitioners and engaging 61 people through safety and support circles, including affinity groups (including Building Authentic Masculinity, Embodying Solidarity, and Beyond Whiteness) and Intro to TJ Circles, focused on collective liberation.
In 2025, FLM took our message of liberation to stages across the state, bridging the gap between historical awareness and contemporary action. From exploring the roots of systemic oppression at the Bottom Rail History Panel to advocating for the safety of our most vulnerable neighbors at the Moms Demand Action Suicide Prevention and Peace Week Gun Violence Prevention panels, we remained committed to “liberating the narrative” in every space we entered.
Our leadership—including Bridget, Kelli, and Rosie —shared our expertise on Transformative Justice with sexual assault advocates at the YWCA and championed DEI and immigrant rights at Mobilize Norman. Through these engagements, and with the support of partners like the First Unitarian Church’s Change for Change initiative, we continue to weave our vision of community-led safety into the broader fabric of Oklahoma’s social justice movement.
Honors & Recognition
The true measure of our work lies in the transformation of our community and the validation of our collective struggle. We are incredibly proud to celebrate aurelius, who was honored as the Changemaker of the Year by Juneteenth on the East and recognized as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Oklahomans. These accolades are a reflection of our mission to “liberate the narrative”—proving that the work of building a future rooted in care and justice is not only necessary but undeniably powerful.
Partnerships
None of this work happens alone. We are deeply grateful to our partner organizations whose solidarity, resources, and shared vision make liberation possible in every community we serve.
None of the victories of 2025—from the doors knocked to the SAFE Commune meetings—would be possible without the unwavering support of our funding partners. You provide the financial bedrock that sustains our radical dreaming and fuels our daily labor. We are deeply grateful to the following organizations and the many individual donors who sustain our work through monthly contributions:
• Public Welfare Foundation
• Groundwork Project
• Andrus Family Fund
• ProsperOK
• The Just Trust Safer Communities Accelerator
• Express International Philanthropy
• Oklahoma City Community Foundation
• Oklahoma State Department of Health
To our monthly sustainers and every individual who contributed: your belief in a future without cages is the engine of this movement. You are more than donors; you are comrades in the work of justice and care.
This year marked a pivotal moment of reflection and recalibration for our organization. Our Advisory Board and staff worked alongside CoSpire Consulting to develop a comprehensive 3-Year Strategic Plan that will guide our movement from 2026 through 2028.
This roadmap ensures that our “abolitionist timeline” remains focused, sustainable, and deeply rooted in our mission of liberation.
We extend a special thank you to CoSpire and the Butlers Did It Nonprofit Incubator for providing the resources and opportunity to build this visionary blueprint for our future.
A Final Note of Gratitude
To our supporters, volunteers, and program participants: you are the heart of this work. Whether you marched with us in McAlester, joined a community circle, or knocked on doors in the Eastside, you have helped us build a community that is responsive, respectful, and rooted in real needs.
Thank you for choosing to be time-travelers with us—for looking back to the wisdom of the past to build the future we all deserve.
