ENGAGEEdition 1

“Essential reading for those of us working in the university and inside institutions that help the state wage war ... While the conversations are informed by histories of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous struggle, they unfold in unexpected ways and in the real time of our perilous and shifting grounds” Tiffany Lethabo King, author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies

This dynamic collection of conversations includes reflections by Black and Indigenous organizers and educators on the historical and ongoing violence and theft that they have endured and continue to resist.

Both raw and disciplined, the wide-ranging discussions explore issues including spirituality, environmentalism, security, freedom, autonomy, anti-Blackness, and family. The volume is an invitation to dismantle colonial oppressions and a step towards building a future free from the harmful legacies of racism and genocide.

ENGAGE includes contributions from under-platformed writers from diverse political perspectives. It emphasizes the role of non-academic collaborators as stewards of progressive, radical projects to realize better and more just futures.

Joy James, Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College, is a political philosopher who works with organizers. She is editor of The Angela Y. Davis Reader and Imprisoned Intellectuals, and co-editor of The Black Feminist Reader. James’s recent books include In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner; and Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon. James is editor of Beyond Cop Cities: Dismantling State and Corporate-Funded Armies.