Join an educational panel featuring Iranian activists and scholars for a discussion of the struggle in Iran and what we can learn from it.
Chanting “Women, Life, Freedom,” protests continue to sweep Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian police.
As our rights in the U.S. are threatened by the government, politicians and the courts, Iranian women and their allies are pointing the way forward to winning rights in far more difficult circumstances. They are fighting for self-determination and the right to control their lives free of outside intervention, including from the United States.
We in the United States have a lot to learn from people in other countries about how to preserve and expand our rights. We embrace the right of all to control their lives free of outside intervention, including from the United States.
Please join Chicago for Abortion Rights for an educational panel featuring Iranian activists and scholars for an exciting discussion about their struggle to win women's rights to control their own bodies and much more!
Speakers:
Mahshid Mir studied medicine in Tehran and after graduation moved to the US for her postdoc fellowship in cardiology at Harvard. Her residency training in internal medicine was at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. Mir is a healer in her day job and an activist in her volunteer time, finding the meaning of life in advocating for the right thing and devoting her life to improvement.
Dr. Zohreh Ghavamshahidi is a retired Iranian-American political science professor who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she was chair of the Women's Studies and Anthropology Departments, and taught courses in international relations and international law. A Fulbright Scholar, she has written extensively about the intersections of gender and religious identities in the Middle East and in the diaspora, and their relationships to state building and common stereotypes.
Roya Karbakhsh is an Iranian-born artist. Her work reflects the inner strength of women as captured through their eyes. As an observer and critic, her detailed works illuminate the feelings of repression and the desire for the collapse of the traditional ‘ways of life’ that are demanded in Iran. Roya’s paintings portray women from different levels of existence, and are brought together in scenes that seem to take place outside the normal perceptions of time. Her focus on the eyes show the spiritual power and the indomitable spirit that resides within the soul of all women. Karbakhsh works as a freelance artist and art teacher in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.
Moderator: Mandy Medley is a socialist feminist and a member of Chicago for Abortion Rights.
This event is sponsored by Chicago For Abortion Rights and Haymarket Books.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/T9EfOQ7hhVg
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More Episodes
Apr 24, 2023
Freedom Dreams Episode 6 with Danielle Deadwyler & Robin D.G. Kelley
Join Robin D.G. Kelley for the Freedom Dreams discussion series. The sixth discussion features actor and filmmaker Danielle Deadwyler.
Freedom Dreams is a classic in the study of the Black radical tradition that has just been released in a new 20th anniversary edition. In this live event series, Robin D. G. Kelley will explore the connections between radical imagination and movements for social transformation with pathbreaking artists and scholars.
Speakers:
Danielle Deadwyler is an American born multidisciplinary performance artist, filmmaker, and actor. She starred as Mamie Till Bradley in the MGM/Orion Pictures feature TILL for visionary director Chinonye Chukwu. She has starred in Netflix's limited series FROM SCRATCH as well the acclaimed Netflix feature THE HARDER THEY FALL for director Jeymes Samuel and producer Jay Z. Other prominent work includes Station Eleven, Watchmen, ATLANTA, and the indie international film THE DEVIL TO PAY.
Deadwyler’s own award winning experimental film work has been presented at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; Atlanta Film Festival; New Orleans Film Festival; Cucalorus Film Festival; and Oxford Film Fest. She has exhibited with CUE Art Foundation (NY), MAMBU BADU collective, Mint Gallery, Whitespace Gallery, The Luminary, Atlanta Contemporary Museum, Spelman College’s Museum of Fine Art Black Box Series, among others. Numerous grants have supported Deadwyler’s works, including IDEA CAPITAL, ELEVATE Atlanta, Living Walls, Synchronicity Theatre, WonderRoot Walthall Fellowship, and Artadia. She is a former Atlanta Film Festival Filmmaker-in-Residence, MINT Gallery Leap Year Fellowship Recipient, a 2020 Franklin Furnace Recipient and a 2021 Princess Grace Award Winner.
Robin D.G. Kelley is Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, among other titles. His writing has been featured in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times, The Crisis, The Nation, and Voice Literary Supplement.
Apr 25, 2023
Banks on the Brink: Finance Crisis, State Bailouts, and the Global Slump
Stock markets and banks are teetering on the edge. Join Spectre live to discuss the meaning of the banking crisis and state bailouts.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank followed by runs on First Republic Bank and Credit Suisse triggered panic in financial and stock markets throughout the world. Just as they did in the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, the U.S. and other states bailed the banks out. Where is this banking crisis headed? What does it mean for the real economy? Join Hadas Thier, David McNally, and Michael Roberts to address these and other questions about capitalism and its global slump.
Speakers:
David McNally is the author of Global Slump and Blood and Money.
Michael Roberts is the author of The Long Depression and Capitalism in the 21st Century.
This event is sponsored by Spectre Journal and Haymarket Books.
May 19, 2023
What’s the future? Where do We go from here?: A Souls Launch
Join Haymarket Books and Souls for a discussion of the campaign to free Mutulu Shakur.
This panel will examine the legacy of Dr. Mutulu Shakur and what this current generation of activists can learn and apply from his political history as an activist, health worker, and political prisoner. What does the experience to win his release have to teach us about remaining COINTELPRO-era political prisoners and contemporary BLM-generation activists?
Speakers:
Rukia Lumumba is the Executive Director of the People’s Advocacy Institute, co-coordinator of the Electoral Justice Project, and campaign co-coordinator of the successful Committee to Elect Chokwe Antar Lumumba for Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.
Jomo Muhammad is an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement & New Afrikan People's Organization.
Monifa Bandele is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the Movement for Black Lives.
Robin D.G. Kelley (moderator) is Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, among other titles. His writing has been featured in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times, The Crisis, The Nation, and Voice Literary Supplement.
This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/x4-m0J3_oLw
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Jun 1, 2023
New Cold War: The US, Russia, and China Today
Join leading international relations experts Gilbert Achcar and Ilya Budraitskis to discuss Achcar's latest book, The New Cold War.
Join leading international relations experts Gilbert Achcar and Ilya Budraitskis as the discuss Achcar's latest book The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warnings of a new Cold War proliferated. In fact, the New Cold War has been ongoing since the late 1990s.
Racing to solidify its position as the last remaining superpower, the US alienated Russia and China, pushing them closer and rebooting the ‘old’ Cold War with disastrous implications. Vladimir Putin’s consequent rise and imperialist reinvention, along with Xi Jinping’s own ascendancy and increasingly autocratic tendencies, would culminate, respectively, in the invasion of Ukraine and mounting tensions over Taiwan and trade.
Was all this inevitable? What comes after Ukraine, and what might the contours of a more peaceful world look like? These questions and others will be discussed in the launch of The New Cold War.
Buy the book from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2053-the-new-cold-war
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Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books include: The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder (2002, 2006); Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky (2007, 2008); The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (2010); Marxism, Orientalism, Cosmopolitanism (2013); The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (2013, 2022); and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (2016).
Ilya Budraitskis is a political and social theorist, previously based in Moscow. Since 2023 he has been a visiting scholar at Berkeley UC. He writes regularly for openDemocracy, Republic.ru, Colta.ru and other outlets. Budraitskis’s essay collection Dissidents among Dissidents. Ideology, politics and The Left in Post-Soviet Russia was published by Verso in 2022. Budraitskis is a member of editorial board of Moscow Art Magazine, Posle.media and Executive committee of Moscow Sakharov Center.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/2qf-u9f83II
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 19, 2023
Organizing for Liberation: The challenges of community organizing today
Join Clément Petitjean and Alex Han in conversation about the new book Occupation Organizer. This event took place on April 30, 2023.
How can activists seize on this moment of unrest to build durable, effective organizations for change? Join Clément Petitjean and Alex Han for a history and critique of the community organizing tradition and the fight to build collective power.
The rise of the professional organizer has seen community organizing as a site of contestation. Chicago, where Alinsky first developed his model of the “professional radical”, is home to vast networks of community-based organizations that bring together multitudes in the fight for collective liberation—led by those who do the work as part of the community, rather than standing apart from it.
With Brandon Johnson set to usher in a new era of progressive politics in Chicago, the time is now to learn from the successes, failures, and contradictions of the past.
Get Occupation Organizer from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/...
Speakers:
Clément Petitjean is an associate professor of American studies at the Université Panthéon Sorbonne in Paris. He holds a PhD in sociology. His writing has appeared in academic journals and popular outlets like Jacobin, Contretemps, and Le Monde diplomatique.
Alex Han is Executive Director of In These Times. He has organized with unions, in the community, and in progressive politics for two decades. In addition to serving as Midwest Political Director for Bernie 2020, he’s worked to amplify the power of community and labor organizations at Bargaining for the Common Good, served as a Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois and Indiana for over a decade, and helped to found United Working Families, an independent political organization in Illinois that has elected dozens of working-class leaders to city, state and federal office. Most recently he was executive editor of Convergence Magazine.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/6xfpDOcW1i0
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Dec 20, 2023
An Asian American A to Z
Join Cathy Linh Che, Kyle Lucia Wu, and illustrator Kavita Ramchandran for a book launch and celebration of An Asian American A to Z.
A comprehensive and spirited exploration of Asian American history—its movements, cultures, and key figures—An Asian American A to Z is a beautifully illustrated and compellingly told for readers of all ages.
Co-authors Cathy Linh Che and Kyle Lucia Wu take us on a journey through stories of celebration and resistance: the Third World Liberation Front, the Muslim Ban, Japanese American incarceration camps, Padma Lakshmi, Rashida Tlaib, Sunisa Lee, and more. It is a history of struggle, but also one of great triumph, brought to life with colorful and dynamic illustrations by Kavita Ramchandran.
Written by the directors of Kundiman—an organization dedicated to nurturing Asian American writers—An Asian American A to Z is a book for children of all backgrounds and a vital resource for tomorrow's organizers. Asian American identity formation is expansive yet under-taught, and this book is a necessary intervention that will ground readers in joy, history, and solidarity.
“This is the book I wish I had when I was growing up. It’s the book I’m glad I have now, one that I can read to my own children. Personal and political, playful and provocative, this rhyming guide brilliantly condenses rich, complicated Asian American histories. It’s an A to Z book that isn’t the last word on Asian American cultures but rather the beginning of many conversations.”
—Viet Thanh Nguyen
“An essential collection for any children’s library—it’s the book I wish I had for my own children when they were young. Informative, engaging and delicious rhymes—Che and Wu are simply enchanting storytellers. This book is foundational and intersectional, providing just the right historical touch to pique kids’ curiosity and encourage further reading for all!”
—Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“In An Asian American A to Z, Che, Wu, and Ramchandran share a beautiful, bright, and inclusive history of Asian America that is sure to inspire and delight readers. Asian Americans have much to be proud of, and much to look forward to.”
—Sarah Park Dahlen
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Speakers:
Cathy Linh Che is the daughter of Vietnam War refugees. She is the author of Split, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies. Her work has been published in New Republic, Nation, McSweeney’s, and Poetry. She serves as Executive Director at Kundiman and lives on the traditional lands of the Lenape people.
Kyle Lucia Wu was born and raised in a small town in New Jersey. She is the author of Win Me Something, an NPR Best Book of the Year. A former Asian American Writers’ Workshop Margins Fellow, her work has been published in Literary Hub, Joyland Magazine, Catapult, and BOMB Magazine. She is the Managing Director of Kundiman and teaches creative writing at Fordham University and The New School.
Kavita Ramchandran is an illustrator and graphic designer based in New York City, though she is originally from Mumbai, India. She has art directed and illustrated for children’s magazines and apps, designed elementary-school text books, and created animated shorts - Maya the Indian Princess and "Happy Holi Maya!" for Nick Jr. Her first picture book - Dancing in Thatha’s Footsteps written by Srividhya Venkat won the 2022 South Asia Book Award. http://www.wemakebelieve.com
Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/zZ7FljzBOA4?feature=share
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks