Victoria Law, familiarly known as Vikki Law, is an American anarchist activist, prison abolitionist, writer, freelance editor, and photographer. Her books are Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (2009, 2012), Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities (edited with China Martens, 2012), Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (co-authored by
Maya Schenwar, 2020), and Prisons Make Us Safer: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration (2021).
Background and education
Victoria Law is of
Chinese descent and was born and raised in
Queens, New York. As an A student in high school, she committed
armed robbery to initiate herself into a Chinatown gang, but was given
probation as a first offense.[1] Her exposure to incarcerated people at
Rikers Island prompted her to get involved in prison support.[2][3]
Career
Law continued fighting for
prison abolition, co-founding
Books Through Bars NYC as a joint project between Blackout Books and Nightcrawlers
Anarchist Black Cross in 1996 at the age of nineteen.[4] In 2003, at the prompting of women incarcerated in an
Oregon prison, she launched the
zineTenacious: Art and Writing from Women in Prison.[5] In 2009, after a decade of researching and writing about
incarcerated women in the United States, Law published her first
monograph with
PM Press, Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women, with a second edition released in 2012.[6] She is a frequent invited speaker, especially since publishing the first edition of Resistance Behind Bars.[7]
Law works with
Books Through Bars (now located at
Freebird Bookstore[8] in
Brooklyn). She has participated in many of ABC No Rio's projects, including its Visual Arts Collective and the
darkroom that she co-founded and co-built. She has had tangential involvement in the punk
collective, as well, and was the primary
caregiver of art and activist space's last remaining
squatter, Cookiepuss (1996–2013), a
calico cat.[9]
In her twenties, after having a child, Law's activism began to include raising awareness of parents in
anarchist communities' need for
solidarity, including free childcare activities at events and protests. Together with long-time
mamazine maker
China Martens, Law began doing
workshops and editing compilation zines about parenting for activists and their
allies, called Don't Leave Your Friends Behind. The two eventually co-edited a book by the same name, also published by PM Press.[10] As her child got older and Law engaged with the literature her child read, Law began to focus attention on the lack of
racial diversity in
young adult fiction, including writing a series of
blog posts on
girls of color in
dystopia for
Bitch Media.[11]
Selected works
Books
Prisons Make Us Safer: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration,
Beacon Press, 2021[12]
Prison by Any Other Name:The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms.
The New Press, 2020. Co-authored by
Maya Schenwar[13]
Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women,
PM Press, 2012, 2009[14]
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: Concrete Ways to Support Families in Social Justice Movements and Communities, PM Press, 2012. Edited with China Martens[15]
Zines
In addition to many zines she has authored or edited:[16]
Tenacious: Art & Writing from Women in Prison, 2003–2020, editor[17]
Nefarious Doings series, about travel in Hong Kong and South Africa, 2006[18]
In addition to print articles about gender, incarceration and resistance,[20] she is a regular contributor to online news and culture venues, including
Bitch Media,[21]The Nation,[22] and
Truthout,[23] among others.
Awards
2013, Health Behind Bars Fellowship,
John Jay’s Center on Media, Crime and Justice[24]
^Law, Vikki; Martens, China (2012). Don't leave your friends behind: concrete ways to support families in social justice movements and communities. Oakland:
PM Press.
ISBN9781604867978.
OCLC815480102.