In this episode, we interview Robyn Spencer. Robyn Spencer is a historian and the author of The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and The Black Panther Party In Oakland . Our conversation is centered around Spencer’s organizational history of the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party. Her work pays particular attention to the experiences and reflections of women who joined the Oakland Panthers, and to the political struggles of the party on issues of gender and patriarchy. Spencer d...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 65
In this episode we interview Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. Among other things, he is the best-selling and award winning author of Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest, A Forture For Your Disaster , They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us , and The Crown Ain’t Worth Much . We talk to Hanif about writing, music and influences. And we move into a discussion of his own politics, and he touches on his own experiences with homelessne...
Jul 27, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 64
This is part 2 of our 2 part conversation with Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, Revisiting The Undercommons In A Time Of Pandemic And Rebellion. In this part of the conversation we focus on their conceptions of homelessness, Black study, the surround, policy and fugitive planning. Moten and Harney also get into a discussion of critiques and notions of sovereignty in Indigenous theory and Afro-pessimism.
Jul 11, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 62
This is part one of a two-part conversation with Fred Moten and Stefano Harney. Fred Moten is the author of In The Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition , multiple volumes of poetry, and most recently the trilogy consent not to be a single being . Stefano Harney is the author of Nationalism and Identity: Culture and the Imagination in a Caribbean Diaspora . He also co-authored The Liberal Arts and Management Education: A Global Agenda for Change with Howard Thomas, and State Work:...
Jul 04, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 62
In this episode we interview Morgan State University and Media Studies Scholar Jared Ball. Ball is the creator of IMIXWHATILIKE.org and the author of I Mix What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto . He is also the co-editor of A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X. In this episode we talk to Dr. Ball about his latest book The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power . He discusses the development of the myth, and the racist dimensions of it. He also gets into a discussion of the ...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Joshua M. Myers is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University. He is the author of We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989 , which came out in 2019 on NYU Press. He is also the editor of A Gathering Together: Literary Journal. Among his current projects, the book Cedric Robinson: Black Radicalism Beyond The Order of Time . In this episode, Myers gives a brief biography of Cedric Robinson’s early life and discusses the key contrib...
Jun 21, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 60
In this episode we talk to Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army Veteran Jamal Joseph. We discuss the new “Open Letter from Original Black Panther Party Members to Black (Hip-Hop) Artists Who Have an Interest in Our Community.” We talk about the Panthers’ desire to engage celebrities and hip hop artists in political discussion about how to use their resources to effectively support a program for Black Liberation. Joseph discuss the latest social movements, the need for a renewal of organ...
Jun 18, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 59
In this episode we speak to five of the creators and authors of 8 To Abolition. Which is an abolitionist response to the police preservationist platform 8 Can’t Wait. Since launching 8 to Abolition has become a viral phenomenon and served along with the popular demands of Defunding Police and Defending Black Life to serve as a key conversation piece and political framework for community-based discussions around police violence and police abolition. We talk to Nnennaya Amuchie, Rachel Kuo, Eli, M...
Jun 15, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 58
In this episode we talk to Robert Saleem Holbrook and Megan Malachi. Megan is an educator and an organizer for Philly for REAL Justice, a grassroots police abolitionist organization that has been organizing in the city for years. One of their keys projects has been pushing direct action towards the removal of the statue of Frank Rizzo, and a multitude of other direct actions around racial injustice, police violence and political prisoners around the city. Robert Saleem Holbrook is the Abolitioni...
Jun 11, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 56
This is a special episode. We did not record this audio, but it was shared with us by some organizers with IWOC New Mexico / Millions For Prisoners New Mexico in order to get the word out and hopefully get support in these times of great unrest. Aaron Dixon, former Captain of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party held this interview with organizers Selinda Guerrero. Selinda leads the New Mexico chapter of Millions for Prisoners, a national movement to abolish the loophole in the 13th am...
Jun 05, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 56
In this episode we interview Vijay Prashad. Prashad is an Indian historian and journalist. He is also the author of thirty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. He is the Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter and a Columnist for Frontline (India) . He is the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi) . We speak to Prashad mainly about his recent w...
May 16, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 55
In this episode we are honored to interview Sekou Odinga. Odinga is a former member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity, a founding member of New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party and one of the falsely charged New York Panther 21. He was also a founding member of the International Black Panther Party chapter which set up an embassy in Algeria. After returning to the US, Odinga joined the Black Liberation Army. In 1984 he was convicted of multiple charges, including the libe...
May 07, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 54
In this episode we talk to Asad Haider. Haider is the author of Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump (Verso, 2018), and a founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine . We talk to Asad about his analysis of the Marxist idea of universal emancipation and how he addresses the debate of a race first or class first orientation. We also talk about the strategy of socialists attaining power electorally within a capitalist system, and how socialists should think about the state. We discuss ot...
May 01, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 53
This is a special episode that was the result of an impromptu study group which focused on Robin DG Kelley's interview entitled "Solidarity Is Not A Market Exchange." Kelley shares reflections on Thelonious Monk, jazz, appropriation, empathy vs. solidarity, Afro-Pessimism and Black Feminism, vanguardism, mutual aid, sociality, and responds to the "What time is it on the clock of the world" amid a global pandemic.
Apr 25, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 52
In this episode we interview Ju-Hyun Park, author of the piece "Reading Colonialism In Parasite ." We talk to them about their piece, and Ju-Hyun provides a ton of great context and background information for the film (spoilers!), but also a powerful reading of the film itself. We end with a couple of questions relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ju-Hyun Park is a writer of the Korean diaspora and a member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in ...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 51
In this episode we interview Sónia Vaz Borges to discuss her book Militant Education, Liberation Struggle, Consciousness: The PAIGC Education In Guinea Bissau 1963-1978 . This book brings to light the educational project developed by the PAIGC during the period of the armed liberation struggle against the Portuguese colonial regime in Guinea Bissau and in the immediate period after independence until 1978. This work includes an extended analysis of reports and printed material produced by the PA...
Mar 29, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 50
This week we are speaking to Hilary Moore and James Tracy about their new book No Fascist USA: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons For Today’s Movements . Hilary Moore is an anti-racist political education trainer and teaches with generative somatics. She works on the Leadership Team of Showing Up For Racial Justice, and is the co-author of Organizing Cools the Planet: Tools and Reflections to Navigate the Climate Crisis . James Tracy is an Instructor of Labor and Community Studies at...
Mar 18, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) is a collective of imprisoned human rights advocates. We talk about their recent national call for outside solidarity actions from August 21st through September 9th. We also talk about the state of prisoner movements today and solidarity organizing on the outside. He also discusses the dangers of celebrities co-opting prisoner resistance and speaking over their demands to impose bad solutions, like recent calls for increases in the numbers of prison guards in Missis...
Mar 02, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 48
In this episode we talk to author, professor, and organizer Johanna Fernández. Fernández is an assistant professor of history at Baruch College of the City University of New York and editor of the book Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal . In this episode, Johanna Fernández talks to us about her brand new book The Young Lords: A Radical History , which Robin DG Kelley has called “the definitive history of the Young Lords.” It is a history that has deep theoretical an...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 47
In this episode we talk to Sina Rahmani about Edward Said’s theory of orientalism and how we see it playing out in the discourse surrounding the US assassination of Qasim Soleimani, Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the largest American military base in Iraq, and the Trump's decision not to respond with further military action. Sina also challenges Western portraits of Iran as well as the dominant narratives around the events of the last month or so. Sina Rahmani earned his PhD in Comparative Litera...
Feb 03, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 46
In this episode we talk to author Garrett Felber about his book Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, The Black Freedom Struggle, and the Carceral State which is out today, January 13th. 2020. The book is a political history of the Nation of Islam which centers the NOI and anticarceral organizing in the story of the postwar Black freedom struggle and the rise of mass incarceration. Felber is an assistant professor of History at the University of Mississippi. His research and teaching fo...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 45
In this special episode, Jared talks to a prisoner named Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun, founder of the Free Alabama Movement. Bennu is currently serving a life without parole sentence in the state of Alabama and we talk about his first interactions with the criminal justice system as a child. This is a conversation about family separation, denial of due process, institutional racism, judicial and law enforcement collusion, and the impact that these practices can have on the trajectory of someone’s life....
Jan 02, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 44
In this episode, we got the opportunity to sit down with two amazing organizers and fellow radical podcast hosts. If you’re not familiar, Hella Black Podcast is an Oakland based audio experience brought to you by Delency Parham and Blake Simons. Their hope for each episode is to educate and inform their listeners about all things related to Blackness. Their podcast is important because it uplifts the voices of Black radical organizers who are doing the work in the field. We talk to Blake and Del...
Dec 16, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 43
In this episode we talk to Noname about Noname’s Bookclub, and the inspiration behind it and her aspirations for it, including her plot to take down Amazon. We get into conversations about capitalism, socialism, Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Noname’s critique of American Exceptionalism in Song 32, and broader discussions about representation and the state of hip hop music today as a cultural vehicle for progressive change.
Nov 13, 2019•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 42
In this episode we interviewed professor and author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor about her latest book Race For Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. The book has already been put on the long-list for the National Book Award. Taylor is also the author of From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation , which articulates many of the historical arguments she references throughout our conversation. In 2017, she also published How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the C...
Oct 20, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In this episode we interview, Aminta Zea, a Marxist Leninist organizer based out of Washington DC. Aminta was a participant in the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective's efforts to protect the embassy from US seizure, in violation of international law, in 2019. Aminta also travelled to and organized in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela this year. With her work she aims to build a bridge between people's struggles throughout the globe in order to further progress the anti-capitalist fight in the...
Oct 18, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 40
This week we have a special episode with two organizers from the No New Jails NYC campaign. They are in a current struggle against jail construction in NYC, which is one of the most important abolitionist campaigns going on around the world right now. Ngozi Alston and Marlene Nava Ramos are volunteer organizers with No New Jails NYC, a multi-racial, multi-gender, and intergenerational campaign aimed to shut down Rikers without building new jails. Ngozi is also a community organizer with BYP100, ...
Oct 11, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 39
In this episode we talk to Nick Estes about his book Our History Is The Future , the new collection he co-edited Standing With Standing Rock and we also talked about his latest piece A Red Deal , which is a synopsis of a movement document that he and his comrades at The Red Nation have developed. Estes pulls together struggles against settler colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and the destruction of the environment and shares an outline of his vision of the path to liberation....
Sep 17, 2019•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In this episode we interview Danny Haiphong, who along with Roberto Servant recently co-authored the book American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People's History of Fake News-from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror on Skyhorse Publishing. We discuss many aspects of how American Exceptionalism and American Innocence are weaponized domestically and internationally in the the name of spreading US Imperialism. In addition to co-authoring this book, Danny Haiphong is an activist, j...
Aug 25, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 37
In this episode we talk to Dr. Jesse Benjamin, co-editor of Walter Rodney's recently published The Russian Revolution: A View From the Third World . We talk to Dr. Benjamin about Walter Rodney's relationship with CLR James. Dr. Benjamin discusses what Tanzania was like for Rodney during the revolutionary period in which Rodney wrote the lectures that formed the book. And we discuss some of the narratives in the book including Rodney's view point on western subjectivism. Dr. Benjamin also shares ...
Aug 11, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 36
