Amika Moda

Amika Moda had been in California State Prison for less than three months when she was forced into solitary confinement.

A guard marched her across the prison yard and down the concrete corridor towards the secured housing unit.

She knew that the people in the cells on either side had been there for months or even years.

And they screamed a lot.

What did you do all day?

She would not speak to or have physical contact with another human for 45 days.

From Wondry and Snap Studios at KQED, I'm Anna Sussman, and this is Fire Escape.

The story of a woman whose world burned down, and then she learned to fight fire from behind bars.

This is Episode 2, Escape.

Up until this moment, Amika's life had been both very ordinary and terribly extraordinary.

She was born in Santa Rosa, California, and when she was a week old, she was adopted by a famous 1970s feminist sex icon.

What kind of mom was she?

Amika's mom, Joni Blank, wrote 12 books for the publishing company she started called Down There Press.

Like, A Complete Guide to Vibrators and I Am My Lover.

32 full-color photographs of women's vulvas.

Like, revolutionaries don't make great, uh, parents?

Amika's relationship with her mom, Joni, was tough from a young age.

Joni had adopted Amika when she was a newborn.

By the time she became a teenager, Amika saw Joni as a hippie Berkeley mom who she couldn't really relate to.

When she was a teenager, Amika was sent to youth diversion programs, and she was placed in kind of halfway houses.