Category: General

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New Videos and a New Syllabus

I am teaching a January Term class at Seattle U for the first time, starting in a few weeks.  It will be a four day intensive about imprisonment.  I just posted the syllabus in case it is of interest.

I also wanted to share some new videos.  GritTV recently posted an interview that Laura Flanders did with me.

http://blip.tv/grittv/dean-spade-the-most-imprisoning-nation-in-the-world-part-1-of-2-6482091

Also, I recently attended the World Social Forum: Free Palestine! in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I was part of a Queer Visions contingent that put on two public panels, this one and this one. Here’s the talk I gave about marriage and the military and pinkwashing:

 

 

 

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New Law Review Article about Queer & Trans Prisoners and Safety

The Circuit, which is the online journal of the California Law Review, just published a response piece I wrote.  I responded to an article that Prof. Russell Robinson wrote about the K6G unit at the Los Angeles County Jail, which is a unit designated for trans women and queer men.  In my response, I suggest that the K6G unit, which was developed after a lawsuit brought on behalf of queer prisoners but has utterly failed to protect them, is a clear example of why we need prison abolition scholarship and politics in order to sufficiently analyze and confront the violence faced by queer and trans prisoners.

 

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Lovers & Fighters in Polish, and the World Social Forum Free Palestine

I’m writing from Brazil, where I have traveled to attend the World Social Forum Free Palestine and specifically to participate in the Queer Visions gathering and public panels here focused on anti-pinkwashing work. The Queer Visions meetings were convened by the wonderful activists from Pinkwatching Israel who gathered 16 international activists doing anti-pinkwashing work in their own contexts.  Here is a video from the Assembly that ended the Forum of anti-pinkwashers presenting a resolution.  Below are some pictures from the march in Porto Alegre–the one with lots of purple is a feminist/women’s solidarity contingent that had beautiful quilted signs.  I also wanted to share the sweet news that Wania and Ewe have translated my 2004 essay, For Lovers and Fighters, into Polish! You can grab it in Polish here.

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New Video, Book Reviews and Recommended Reading

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining Laura Whitehorn in the Radical Book Tent at the Baltimore Book Festival, organized by the wonderful people at Red Emma’s.

In other news, I’ve added a bunch of reviews of Normal Life to the writing page on this site, in case they interest you.

Also, I want to recommend an exciting new book, The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard.  You can order a copy to be sent to a prisoner when you order your own on the Topside Press website. Please do!

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Queering Abolition

American Quarterly just published an conversation between me, Eric A. Stanley and the authors of Queer (In)Justice.  You can download it here.  Speaking of abolition, last week’s public forum about King County’s plans to pour a ton of money into rehabilitating our youth jail and the court buildings where kids of color get sentenced to jail and parents of color get their kids taken away was very contentious. I wrote something about what happened and why the forum should not have been shut down here.

In other news, Normal Life is a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award! Some of the finalists in the Seattle region are reading together on April 25 at 7pm at Vermillion. Hope to see you there!

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Romantic Friendship, Palestine and California

A few recent things to share: Here is a link to a radio interview between me and the brilliant and inspiring activist-scholars Eric Stanley and Reina July about trans politics and prison abolition that took place in January on Romantic Friendship radio.  I also want to share this open letter created by activist from a recent LGBTQ delegation to Palestine that I participated in in January.  Please sign on!  Below is a photo from my trip–a mural on a part of the separation wall.  I’m working on creating some writing about my trip to share with photos that will hopefully be posted here soon.  Finally, Toshio Meronek recently interviewed Eric Stanley and I about Captive Genders and Normal Life in advance of our trip to speak at UC Davis. You can read Toshio’s article here.