As part of celebrating the release of my new book on #mutualaid this week from Verso Books, I wrote this little piece highlighting 5 books that demonstrate how mutual aid is central to movements for transformative change. Check it out!
https://www.versobooks.com/lists/4876-5-book-plan-mutual-aid
Today my new book from Verso Books, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity Through This Crisis (and the next) launches. I’ll be doing a launch event with Whitney Hu hosted by Community Bookstore tonight at 7:30pm Eastern, which will be recorded and available on their youtube after.
I am also very much looking forward to “We Keep Each Other Safe: Mutual Aid for Survival and Solidarity,” a conversation about the book with Ejeris Dixon and Mariame Kaba, hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, Nov 12.
Also, check out this article Chris Dixon wrote featuring the book and discussing, more broadly, the importance of the ordinary, everydayness of mutual aid work in a world that tells us to seek fame and notoriety for social movement work.
Finally, Truthout published an adapted excerpt from the book today that might be good for reading groups or classrooms since its short and to the point.
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!
For years, I have been sad about how mutual aid rarely gets taught in classes about social change and social movements. It is such a vital part of movement building and transformation, and often very mobilizing for students to learn about it. I hope this will be changing as the concept of mutual aid is circulating more. I made a Teaching Guide to go with my new book about mutual aid being published by Verso Books in October, wanted to share now in case anyone is considering the book for fall syllabi.
It was a treat to get to talk to the brilliant makers of the Rebel Steps podcast for their episode on community care. If you haven’t already listened to them, check out all their episodes. They do a great job breaking down the elements of social movement work, lifting up brilliant examples of different tactics, and making it all feel possible. Listen here.
This conversation was very rich and useful for me. I hope you enjoy it! I am grateful to the organizers and my fellow panelists.
“Mutual Aid” is a People’s Movement: Beyond Philanthropy, Charity, and Dependence on the (Police) State
An American Studies Association 2020 Freedom Course recorded on April 22, 2020
Framing questions: * What is “mutual aid,” and how is it different from charity, philanthropy, and state social services? * How is mutual aid part of current and historical freedom, liberation, and self-determination struggles of different peoples? * How are mutual aid efforts responding to the COVID-19 pandemic? * How can people participate in mutual aid projects RIGHT NOW?
Participants: * Rachel Gilmer, Helen Peña, and Dr. Armen Henderson Dream Defenders (https://dreamdefenders.org/) * Amika Tendaji Ujimaa Medics (https://umedics.org/) * Mariame Kaba Project NIA (http://project-nia.org/) * Dean Spade Seattle University School of Law (http://bigdoorbrigade.com/) * facilitated by Dylan Rodríguez Univ of California, Riverside; President-Elect of the American Studies Association (2020-2021)
Roberto Sirvent and I are publishing a series of interviews with mutual aid groups in Black Agenda Report. Check out the second in the series, with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief!
Duke University Press just published a Care for Uncertain Times syllabus making tons of great work free to read! I am so grateful that my book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law is included, as is the new issue of Social Text on Radical Care in which I published an article on mutual aid. Check it out!
Roberto Sirvent and I are working on a series of interviews with rad mutual aid organizations and practitioners for Black Agenda Report. The first interview, with Ujimaa Medics, is now out! Have a read and look out for more to come.
