This conversation was such a treat. Many thanks to Mia and to everyone at Bluestockings for making it happen!
Conversation on Transformative Justice and Mutual Aid and Two Recent Interviews
Last week, Mariame Kaba and Ejeris Dixon joined me in a conversation about mutual aid, transformative justice and abolition. It was one of the best public conversations I have ever been part of and I highly recommend watching the recording!
In advance of that event, Barnard College interviewed me about mutual aid.
I also recently spoke to KUOW’s Bill Radke on The Record. You can listen here.
Book Launch Event, Death Panel Podcast, and 5 Books that Inspire My Thinking on Mutual Aid
Last week I launched my new book, Mutual Aid, in conversation with Whitney Hu, hosted by Community Bookstore. You can watch the event video if you missed it.
Verso also recently gave me the opportunity to write a short descriptive list of five books that have influenced my thinking about mutual aid. You can read the essay, which focuses on the work of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, No One Is Illegal, and INCITE! and includes writing by Peter Gelderloos, Alondra Nelson, Harsha Walia, and others.
I encourage you to listen to all the episodes of the Death Panel podcast, including my recent conversation with them about mutual aid, COVID, poor relief histories, law, and more.
Finally, I wanted to note that my new book is part of a four-book series from Verso about COVID and care. Collect all four!
Recent Events: Recordings to Watch!
Check out these three videos of recent panel events I was part of.
This panel at NYU’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality was a truly interesting conversation. And there was accidental outfit coordination between panelists.
This event at San Francisco State was a showstopper, featuring so many brilliant thinkers talking about queer justice, colonialism, war, and pinkwashing.
I was honored to be the keynote trainer at Movement Law Lab’s final session in their Build Power, Fight Power online course, in which thousands of lawyers and law students participated over several months. In this talk, I provide a basic rundown of the limits of law and lawyers to social movements, and the potential for us to participate in ethical, transformative ways.
Finally, this event with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project about queer and trans abolition politics is not to be missed!
Abolition 101 Video
I recently had the pleasure of doing an Abolition 101 workshop for 350 Seattle as part of their Racial Justice Is Climate Justice Learning Series. I wonder if this short workshop might be of use to other groups trying to introduce a discussion about abolition to their members. If you want to see the resource list 350 put together after, which includes some of the things I mentioned in the video and a link to my slides, look here.
Podcast and Webinar on Mutual Aid
Here is a podcast interview I did with Anarchy on Air with host J. Kēhaulani Kauanui in September, 2019, that I think I forgot to share here.
And check out this webinar from yesterday about mutual aid, which includes an info-packed, concise history of Black mutual aid from Dr. Shabazz. Not to be missed!
Recent Podcast Interviews and Webinars
Listen to this conversation between me and my friend and collaborator, Ciro Carillo about COVID-era mutual aid, overwork, burnout, and caring for ourselves and each other.
Check out this conversation about evaluating reforms in the time of #Defund campaigns, we me and Mariame Kaba, Wood Ervin, Kamau Walton and K Agbebiyi.
Don’t miss this conversation on queer abolition I got to be part of with Andrea Ritchie, Kenyon Farrow, Zakara Green, Jason Lydon, Su’Gani, and Mike Cox.
Also, this conversation about mutual aid with Klee Banally, Kali Akuno, and Mariame Kaba.
And this rad event with Nikki Columbus, Hanna Appel, David Xu Borgonjon, Sami Disu, Jamila Hammami, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Yu-Line Niou, Sandy Nurse and Naomi Zewde.
Video: Mutual Aid Panel with Mariame Kaba, Kali Akuno and Klee Benally
This conversation was very rich and useful for me. I hope you enjoy it! I am grateful to the organizers and my fellow panelists.
Video of Conversation about Pinkwashing and Solidarity with WWU’s SUPER Chapter
For Israeli Apartheid week, I joined the SUPER chapter at Western Washington University and gave a talk on pinkwashing and how it emerged from a rights-based gay liberal inclusion politics, and what it looks like to resist that politics and center racial and economic justice in queer and trans liberation work. The first two minutes have some strange audio so I recommend skipping to 2:00 and diving in from there.
Videos of a Rad Conversation
I learned so much at this event, which pulled together a group of brilliant organizers to talk about mutual aid, debt and labor strikes, and more. The first video below was a conversation featuring a bunch of speakers giving short, info-packed presentations, and the videos after that are moderated break out room conversations. I gave a presentation in the first event and was one of the speakers in the mutual aid break out room, which I really enjoyed, but I recommend you watch them all!