Ruth Wilson Gilmore is one of the world's foremost thinkers on racism, racial capitalism, and abolition. As she says, "abolition is presence." In her conversation with Barbara Ransby, the two will explore Gilmore's work, discuss the organized violence of the state, and make the case for the urgency of building organizations committed to making tomorrow better by making today better. 

**This in person event will be live-streamed through Haymarket Books. Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event.

We ask that all in-person attendees wear masks in the event space during the program for the health and well-being of the speaker and other guests. We will have a reception afterwards with light refreshments and books available for purchase.**

--------------------------------------------------------------

Speakers:

Ruth Wilson Gilmore is Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, American Studies, and Africana Studies at the City University of New York Graduate Center, where she served as Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics from 2014-2024. Co-founder of many grassroots organizations, including California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance, and Central California Environmental Justice Network, Gilmore is author of Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation (Verso 2022), and Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (University of California 2007). She and Paul Gilroy co-edited Stuart Hall: Selected Writings on Race and Difference (Duke 2021). Other recent publications include an Introduction to V.I. Lenin Imperialism and the National Question (Verso), and forewords to the English translation of Making the World Clean by Françoise Vergès (Goldsmiths and MIT Press 2024), and to Tithi Bhattacharya and Susan Ferguson, eds., Making Death and Life in Palestine (forthcoming, Pluto Press). Gilmore has lectured around the world. The Antipode documentary Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore (dir. Kenton Card. 2021) is a glimpse into her internationalist work. Honors include The Association of American Geographers Lifetime Achievement Award (2020); the 2020 Lannan Foundation Lifetime Cultural Freedom Prize (with Mike Davis and Angela Y. Davis); and the 2022 Marguerite Casey Freedom Scholar Prize.

Dr. Barbara Ransby is a widely acclaimed historian of the Black Freedom Movement, award-winning author, and longtime activist. She is the John D. MacArthur Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also directs the Social Justice Initiative, which promotes connections between academics and community organizers working on social justice. She is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson and Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century.

--------------------------------------------------------------

This event is co-sponsored by Pilsen Community Books and Haymarket Books, and is part of the Haymarket Presents speakers series. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.