A conversation about the role of social workers organizing for justice in the so-called child welfare system.
Social work, historically and today, has been deeply embedded in systems of carceral control. With social work's legacy of ties to policing and oppressive family regulation through the child welfare system, the social work community is actively imagining and working towards a social work rooted in abolition, turning to traditions of resistance that also characterize its history. This webinar is a third in a series on Abolitionist Social Work organized by the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAAASW) in partnership with Haymarket Books, challenging carceral social work through the development and practice of an abolitionist social work.
The Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAAASW) is a group of social workers from different parts of the U.S. building a year-long initiative to support abolitionist work in the field of social work. The initiative includes ongoing political education, research, knowledge generation around carceral and abolition social work, developing an online hub of abolitionist social work resources, and broader organizing and advocacy efforts to build abolitionist ideas and practices into social work.
Speakers:
Halimah Washington is a Black mama and social justice activist/advocate from New York City. Halimah has over 15 years of experience in human services and has made it her mission to be a social change agent. She has been action oriented, lobbying in Albany as an activist and advocate fighting for criminal justice reform, reproductive justice, education reform, fair and affordable housing and HIV/AIDS-related issues. Halimah is a Columbia University Beyond the Bars Fellow and NYC Department of Health Birth Justice Defender.
Joyce McMillan is a thought leader, advocate, activist, community organizer, and educator. Her mission is to remove systemic barriers in communities of color by bringing awareness to the racial disparities in systems where people of color are disproportionately affected. Joyce believes before change occurs the conversation about systemic oppression that creates poverty, and feeds people of color into systems must happen on all levels consistently. She completed a restorative certificate program at the New School and says change will not happen independently of healing. Her ultimate goal is to abolish systems of harm while creating concrete community resources. Joyce is the founder and Executive Director of JMacForFamilies, a 501 3 c she founded to support families.
MJ (Maleeka Jihad) is the Director of the MJ Consulting Firm, an Agency focused on dismantling systemic racism in the child welfare system through education, advocacy and policy reform. She is the CEO and Co-creator of EC3 (Emic Cultural Consultants Collective), where she specializes in organizational and individual transformational work with structural racism. As an adjunct faculty member at the Graduate School of Social Work with the University of Denver, she teaches race, privilege, social justice and law courses.
Michelle Grier (she/her) is a social justice worker and Black feminist committed to liberatory healing practices. She is a social worker, with over 10 years of experience, learning from and providing support to young people in schools and nonprofits. Her current commitments are focused on amplifying the mandates and messages of BIPOC youth survivors of racial and gender-based violence. She is a member of NAASW.
This event is sponsored by the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work and Haymarket Books.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/t2_LKmSz0Iw
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
More Episodes
Mar 1, 2021
What a School Means with Eve L. Ewing (5-14-20)
Join Eve L. Ewing in radically reimagining the meaning of public schools with an antiracist, liberatory vision of what education could be.
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What are schools beyond the brick and mortar that compose them or the test scores and graduation rates that garner the most public attention?
Join writer, scholar and cultural organizer Eve. L. Ewing in conversation with Jen Johnson from the Chicago Teachers Union as they discuss what schools really mean to Americans and to African-Americans in particular.
Can schools be places for liberation or are they destined to remain institutions that reflect the oppressions and segregation of society?
Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection 1919 and the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side. Her first book, the poetry collection Electric Arches, received awards from the American Library Association and the Poetry Society of America and was named one of the year's best books by NPR and the Chicago Tribune.
Jen Johnson is Chief of Staff for the Chicago Teachers Union.
Get the books:
1919: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1295-1919
Electric Arches: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1374-electric-arches
Check out Eve's latest book, Ghosts in School Yard: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9780226526027
Haymarket's list of books for young readers: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/116-50-off-haymarket-books-for-young-readers
Haymarket's education justice reading list: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/146-education-justice-reading-list
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/NHo2egETxvI
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Into the Portal, Leave No one Behind with Arundhati Roy and Naomi Klein (5-19-20)
Join Arundhati Roy and Naomi Klein in a conversation moderated by Asad Rehman on how we move from crisis to justice and build a Global Green New Deal!
We knew our system was broken. But the Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the cruelty of the global economy, and deepened the visceral injustices of our societies.
Before the virus stuck, the effect of climate catastrophe and obscene inequality meant that millions were already living in multiple crises.
Now, as the pandemic wreaks an untold impact, we know that it is those who are most vulnerable—whether from their inability to access healthcare, or because of their economic precarity—who bear the heaviest burden. In times of crisis, it is always the poorest, the most oppressed, and those under occupation, who are most affected.
Our only recourse is to amplify the calls for justice ringing from every corner of the globe. The time to build the future we deserve is now, and international solidarity is the tool we need to begin its construction.
You can get involved by joining and supporting each of this event's sponsoring organizations.
The Global Green New Deal: http://globalgnd.org/
The Leap: https://theleap.org/
War on Want: https://waronwant.org/
Haymarket Books: https://www.haymarketbooks.org
Check out Naomi Klein's latest book, On Fire: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781982129910
Read Arundhati Roy's 'The Pandemic is a Portal': https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca
Pre-order Arundhati Roy's Azadi: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781642592603
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/w0NY1_73mHY
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Abolish ICE is Not Just a Slogan with Justin Akers Chacón and John Washington (5-19-20)
Authors John Washington and Justin Akers Chacón discuss how to stand in solidarity with immigrant communities in a time of crisis.
Get a copy of The Dispossessed: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3171-the-dispossessed
Get a copy of Radicals in the Barrio: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/987-radicals-in-the-barrio
For more books on resisting empire at home and abroad: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/99-haymarket-books-for-resisting-empire
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As coronavirus rages on, immigrant communities are being left to fend for themselves.
Barred from most financial assistance, scapegoated as harbingers of disease, and facing dire conditions in detention; the Trump administration is seizing upon a pandemic to further its nativist agenda.
How can we build a movement to resist the racist attacks on immigrants and demand not only an end to ICE but justice and relief for all immigrants?
John Washington writes about immigration and border politics, as well as criminal justice, photography, and literature. He is also an award winning translator, having translated Óscar Martinez, Anabel Hernández, and Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, among others. His book, The Dispossessed, on the global story of asylum, is forthcoming from Verso Books in 2020.
Justin Akers Chacón, a professor of U.S. History and Chicano Studies in San Diego, California, is the author of Radicals in the Barrio: Magonistas, Socialists, Wobblies, and Communists in the Mexican-American Working Class (Haymarket 2018) and, with Mike Davis, No One is Illegal (Haymarket Books, 2006).
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/3Z7SKGTgYqQ
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
The Breakbeat Poets Live Ch. 1 (5-20-20)
Hosted by Kevin Coval and Idris Goodwin, The BreakBeat Poets Live is a virtual, multi-generational showcase of some of the illest writers on the planet rock. Each chapter features writers and performers who are part of the Haymarket Books family.
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Kevin Coval is a poet and author of A People’s History of Chicago and over ten other collections, anthologies, and chapbooks. He is the founder and editor of the BreakBeat Poets series for Haymarket Books, artistic director for Young Chicago Authors, and the founder of Louder than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival.
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Idris Goodwin is the playwright, producer, educator, who coined the term “breakbeat poet.” He is the author of Can I Kick It? and the Pushcart–nominated collection These Are the Breaks. His publications also include Inauguration, cowritten with Nico Wilkinson, and Human Highlight: An Ode to Dominique Wilkins and This Is Modern Art, both cowritten with Kevin Coval.
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Comprised of two gifted musicians, The O’My’s channel their experiences and perspective into gritty, polished music that grabs listeners with its sound, and holds them with its content. Nick Hennessey and Maceo Vidal-Haymes, two Chicago natives, man the keys and guitar respectively, with Maceo handling vocal duties.
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Penelope Alegria is the Chicago Youth Poet Laureate for 2019-2020 and a two-time member of Young Chicago Authors’ artistic apprenticeship. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in La Nueva Semana, Muse/A Journal, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT, and elsewhere. She is a Brain Mill Press Editor’s Pick and was awarded the 2018 Literary Award by Julian Randall.
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Tarfia Faizullah is the author of two poetry collections, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf 2018) and Seam (SIU 2014). The recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, three Pushcart prizes, and other honors, Tarfia has been featured in periodicals, magazines, and anthologies both here and abroad.
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Krista Franklin is a writer and visual artist, the author Too Much Midnight (Haymarket Books, 2020), the artist book Under the Knife (Candor Arts, 2018), and the chapbook Study of Love & Black Body (Willow Books, 2012). She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and a frequent contributor to the projects of fellow artists. Her visual art has exhibited at Poetry Foundation, Konsthall C, Rootwork Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Studio Museum in Harlem, Chicago Cultural Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, and the set of20th Century Fox’s Empire.
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chicago born and raised, roy kinsey is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to tradition in his respective industries. where being a black, queer-identified, rapper, and librarian may be an intimidating choice for some, roy kinsey’s non-conformist ideology has informed his 4th album, and self proclaimed, “best work yet,” blackie: a story by roy kinsey.
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Willie Perdomo is the author of The Crazy Bunch, which recently won the New York City Book Award for poetry, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Smoking Lovely, winner of the PEN Open Book Award, and Where a Nickel Costs a Dime, a finalist for the Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award. He is also a co-editor of the BreakBeat Poetry Series anthology, LatiNext.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/BbAovRbt6Zw
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Tech Won't Save Us Silicon Valley and the Coronavirus Crisis (5-26-20)
Join us for a conversation between Nicole Aschoff and Rob Larson on how Big Tech and its philosopher kings are profiting off the coronavirus crisis, why that should make you angry, and what we can do about it.
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With the necessity of social distancing forcing more and more of our lives to be lived through our screens, technology has begun seeping even deeper into the crevices of our social fabric. With everything from elementary school classes to routine doctor’s visits being mediated by various apps, smart phones, and computers, Silicon Valley is poised to be more profitable—and more powerful as a political force—than ever before.
Tales of Amazon’s record profits, and Bill Gates’s boundless generosity are presented by the media as the silver-linings we can all believe in amidst the endless torrent of pandemic related bad news. And yet signs of the tech related scandals-to-come are already all around us—Elon Musk’s move to re-open his smart-car factories and stories of Zoom’s predatory data hoovering practices being just two among many.
Join authors, activists, and radicals Rob Larson and Nicole Aschoff as they discuss why we should resist swallowing the tech industry’s puff, spin, and outright lies, and whether we use their own platforms against them to build digital socialism.
Rob Larson is a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College and author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley, and Capitalism vs. Freedom. He writes for Jacobin, In These Times, Current Affairs and Dollars & Sense.
Nicole Aschoff is a writer, editor, and sociologist. She is the author of The Smartphone Society: Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age and The New Prophets of Capital, an editor-at-large at Jacobin magazine, and managing editor of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian, the Nation, Dissent, and Al Jazeera, among many other places, and she contributes regularly to podcasts and radio shows.
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Order a copy of Nicole Aschoff's book The Smartphone Society: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9780807061688
Order a Copy of Nicole Aschoff's book, The New Prophets of Capital: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781781688106
Order a copy of Rob Larson's book, Bit Tyrants: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1447-bit-tyrants
Order a copy of Rob Larson's book Capitalism Vs. Freedom: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/capitalism-freedom
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/LBSotsDgSts
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
The New Authoritarians (5-29-20)
The New Authoritarians and COVID-19: a discussion with David Renton and Sita Balani about the rise of the far right in a time of crisis.
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The years since the 2008 crash have seen a rise of authoritarian, right-wing politics across the globe. The many representatives of this ascendent current include Trump in the US, the UK’s radicalized Conservative Party, Modi in India, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Orban in Hungary.
Drawing on strands of multiple traditions, from traditional conservatism to fascism, this remains a novel and still-evolving formation, differing across national and regional contexts. Now, its representatives are faced with a pandemic, the impacts of which on our social, economic, and political systems – as well as on human life itself – are already vast.
Drawing on David Renton’s The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the Right (Haymarket Books and Pluto, 2019), this discussion will interrogate the responses and prospects of the global right in the era of COVID-19.
David Renton is a barrister, writer, and political activist. From 2003 to 2006, he was a member of the national steering committee of Unite Against Fascism. His many books include Fascism: Theory and Practice (1999), Fascism, Anti-Fascism, and Britain in the 1940s (2000), British Fascism, the Labour Movement, and the State (2004), and When We Touched the Sky: the ANL, 1977-1981 (2006).
Sita Balani is a lecturer in contemporary literature and culture at King’s College London. In her research and teaching, she explores the relationship between imperialism and identity in contemporary Britain. Her work has appeared in Feminist Review, Identity Theory, Open Democracy, Photoworks and the Verso blog.
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Get a copy of The New Authoritarians here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1261-the-new-authoritarians
For further reading on the struggle against the far right check out Haymarket's Books for Fighting Fascism: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/81-haymarket-books-for-fighting-fascism
Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com/
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/tEa_hbjJDC0
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
