Joy James, Felicia Denaud, and Stevie Wilson discuss IPORL [$15+ suggested]
Help us raise $3000 to donate books to 200 incarcerated students! Registration for LIVE PARTICIPATION ends at 5:00 PM EDT on May 25th, and you will receive a zoom link at that time. You can continue to register to receive a recording through June 1.
When: Thursday May 25, 6:30-8:00 PM EST ONLINE
What: A discussion of the past, present, & future of abolitionism with Joy James, Felicia Denaud, and Stevie Wilson
All donations benefit Study & Struggle and provide books for shared study among more than 200 incarcerated scholars.
In IPORL, activist-scholar Joy James writes of an abolitionism "aligned with dedicated activists experimenting as alchemists—shar[ing] leadership with imprisoned intellectuals,” while Mumia Abu-Jamal in the Afterword defines Revolutionary Love as "love that dares all things, beyond which others may find the spirit-force to survive; to live to fight another day." Reflecting on Revolutionary Love and the Imprisoned Black Radical Intellectual Tradition, Profs James and Denaud with imprisoned scholar Stevie Wilson analyze the past, present, and future of abolitionism(s).
This event supports abolitionist study across prison walls through Study & Struggle. Study & Struggle comprises over 200 comrades in the prison system who study together. All donations purchase copies of In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love at the author’s discounted rate to be sent to the Study & Struggle collective for distribution among incarcerated students. We recommend a donation of $15 per person, which covers the cost of one book plus shipping. If you are unable to make a donation at this time but would still like to attend the event, a promo code can be found at the bottom of this event page.
Participants may purchase their own copies of In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love directly from the publisher. You can also read an abridged excerpt in Inquest or the preface and afterward in advance of the event.
All registrants will be sent a zoom link to participate live or a recording link afterwards. Please indicate in your sign-up if you intend to participate in the zoom session or prefer a recording only. Zoom links and attendance information will be sent via email one week before the event.
Discussants:
Joy James, Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College, is author of "The Womb of Western Theory" , In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love, and New Bones Abolition. She contributes to Guerrilla Intellectual Union (GIU).
Felicia Denaud is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She writes, in the words of Sylvia Wynter, toward the ends of empire, war, and accumulation by elimination.
Stevie Wilson is a currently incarcerated, Black, queer writer, activist and student. For over two decades, he was active in the ballroom community and worked as an HIV prevention specialist and community organizer. His work and practice inherit teachings from prison abolition, transformative and racial justice, Black feminist theory, and gender and queer theory and liberation. Specifically, he works to end cycles of poverty and incarceration that have plagued his community. He works to expose and dismantle the prison industrial complex, and to build a world in which we deal with harm without caging or exiling other people.
Moderators:
Jarvis Benson (he/they) is a phone line coordinator for Study and Struggle. Originally from Grenada, Mississippi, Jarvis previously served as an Emerson National Hunger Fellow and is currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Annu Dahiya is the Associate Director and a Core Faculty member of Night School Bar, where she teaches a feminist and anti-racist philosophy class series, including a class on feminist and anti-racist philosophies of love.