When #BlackLivesMatter emerged in 2013, it animated the most consequential Black-led mobilization since the civil rights and Black power era. Today, the hashtag-turned rallying cry is but one expression of a radical reorientation toward Black politics, protest, and political thought. We’re joined today by the author of a book about the past 10 years of political movement, Christopher Paul Harris. His book To Build a Black Future examines the spirit and significance of this insurgency, offering a revelatory account of a new political culture—responsive to pain, suffused with joy, and premised on care—emerging from the centuries-long arc of Black rebellion, a tradition that traces back to the Black slave.
Drawing on his own experiences as an activist and organizer, Christopher Paul Harris takes readers inside the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to chart the propulsive trajectory of Black politics and thought from the Middle Passage to the present historical moment. Carefully attending to the social forces that produce Black struggle and the contradictions that arise within it, Harris illustrates how M4BL gives voice to an abolitionist praxis that bridges the past, present, and future, outlining a political project at once directed inward to the Black community while issuing an outward challenge to the world.
This week’s Resistance in Residence Artist is longtime Oakland writer, punk musician, dancer, director and underground legend Brontez Purnell who released a new book of poetry in February called, “The Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt.”
Check out his new book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374612702/tenbridgesiveburnt
—-
Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page
Get in touch: [email protected]
Follow us on socials @LawAndDis:
https://twitter.com/LawAndDis;
https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/