This event is the second in a series of three events curated by Cortney Lamar Charleston in collaboration with The BreakBeat Poets and Haymarket Books, to celebrate the release of his new collection, Doppelgangbanger.
Cortney Lamar Charleston is joined by Patricia Smith for this event. NB: Nate Marshall was unable to join the event, but his work is read by Cortney.
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Speakers:
Nate Marshall is an award-winning author, editor, poet, playwright, performer, educator, speaker, and rapper. His book, Wild Hundreds, was honored with the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s award for Poetry Book of the Year and The Great Lakes College Association’s New Writer Award. He is also an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and he also co-curates The BreakBeat Poets series for Haymarket Books. Marshall co-wrote the play "No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks with Eve Ewing", produced by Manual Cinema and commissioned by the Poetry Foundation. He also wrote the audio drama "Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis, Esq.", which was produced by Make-Believe Association. His last rap album, Grown, came out in 2015 with his group Daily Lyrical Product. His second book, FINNA, was released in 2020 from One World/Random House.
Nate was born at Roseland Community Hospital and raised in the West Pullman neighborhood of Chicago. He is a proud Chicago Public Schools alumnus. Nate completed his MFA in Creative Writing at The University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers' Program. He holds a B.A. in English and African American Diaspora Studies from Vanderbilt University. Marshall has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The Poetry Foundation, and The University of Michigan. Nate loves his family and friends, Black people, dope art, literature, history, arguing about top 5 lists, and beating you in spades.
Patricia Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art, winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist; and Gotta Go, Gotta Flow, a collaboration with award-winning Chicago photographer Michael Abramson. Her other books include the poetry volumes Teahouse of the Almighty, Close to Death, Big Towns Big Talk, Life According to Motown; the children's book Janna and the Kings and the history Africans in America, a companion book to the award-winning PBS series. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Baffler, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Tin House and in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Mystery Stories. She co-edited The Golden Shovel Anthology—New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks and edited the crime fiction anthology Staten Island Noir.
She is a Guggenheim fellow, a Civitellian, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt Prize, a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, a former fellow at both Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. Patricia is a Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York and an instructor in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada University and in the Vermont College of Fine Arts Post-Graduate Residency Program.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/OlnZUi3W1As
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
More Episodes
Mar 1, 2021
The Breakbeat Poets Live! Chapter 3 (6-17-20)
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.
Mixing lofi soul instrumentals with funk influences and smooth vocals. Elton Aura has a unique knack for words, flow, and beat selection. He opened up for Noname on her Room 25 tour in 2019 and is in the later stages of his next project coming in 2020.
Cortney Lamar Charleston is a Cave Canem fellow and Pushcart Prize-winning author of Telepathologies (Saturnalia Books, 2017) and the forthcoming Doppelgangbanger (Haymarket Books, 2021).
Aracelis Girmay is the author of the poetry books Teeth, Kingdom Animalia, and the black maria, and the picture book changing, changing. She is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund and recently edited a new Selected of Lucille Clifton poems entitled How to Carry Water.
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Juan J. Morales is the son of an Ecuadorian mother and Puerto Rican father. He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Handyman’s Guide to End Times, Winner of the 2019 International Latino Book Award. He is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Macondo Fellow, the Editor/Publisher of Pilgrimage Press, and Professor and Department Chair of English & World Languages at Colorado State University-Pueblo.
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José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His book, Citizen Illegal, won of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize and was named a top book of 2018 by NPR.
He holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Poets House, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. Olivarez was awarded the Author and Artist in Justice award from the Phillips Brooks House Association and named a Debut Poet of 2018 by Poets & Writers. He is a recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.
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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 Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, The Best American Poetry 2019, and African Voices. He is currently a Lucas Arts Literary Fellow and teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy.
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Diamond Sharp is a poet and essayist from Chicago. She has performed at Chicago's Stage 773 and her work has been featured on Chicago Public Radio. She has been published in the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Vice, Pitchfork, Lenny, PANK, and others. A Callaloo fellow, she has also attended the Wright/Hurston workshop and is a member of the inaugural Poetry Foundation Incubator class. Her debut book of poetry, Super Sad Black Girl, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books. Diamond is an alumna of Wellesley College.
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/9fyjCPbIKCM
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Raising Antiracist Kids with Ibram Kendi and Derecka Purnell (6-18-20)
Join us for a discussion about raising antiracist kids with author of the new book, AntiRacist Baby, Ibram X.Kendi in conversation with Derecka Purnell.
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A new uprising across the country demanding racial justice is a powerful reminder that families of all backgrounds need to be pro-active in raising children to understand racism and discrimination, and helping our kids to be a force for anti-racist change in the world.
How do families raise actively anti-racist children?
AntiRacist Baby written by Ibram X. Kendi; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky (Kokila Books; on sale June 16, 2020; ages 0-3)
Ibram X. Kendi is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. He is an Ideas Columnist at The Atlantic, and a correspondent with CBS News. He is the author of four books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won National Book Award for Nonfiction, and the New York Times bestsellers How to Be an Antiracist and STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds. His next book, AntiRacist Baby, will be published in June.
Derecka Purnell is is a human rights lawyer, writer, and organizer. Since graduating from Harvard Law School, she has worked to end police and prison violence nationwide by providing legal assistance, research, and trainings to community based organizations through an abolitionist framework. Derecka is currently a columnist at The Guardian and Deputy Director of Spirit of Justice Center.
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Co-sponsored by:
Haymarket Books: https://www.haymarketbooks.org
Antiracist Research & Policy Center: https://antiracismcenter.com/
Labyrinth Books: https://www.labyrinthbooks.com/
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/FnqS49Zfrjw
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Abolish Silicon Valley! (6-22-20)
Disruption, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit – Silicon Valley is viewed by many as the cradle of technological development and progress in our world today. But, behind the luster of unlimited growth and unbounded ambition lies Capitalism’s standard blend of exploitation and concentration of individual wealth at the expense of public good.
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At a time when technology is seeping even deeper into our lives, how can we reclaim it for the many and not the few?
Join authors, activists and radicals Rob Larson and Wendy Liu for a discussion on Big Tech’s monopolistic power today, and how we can respond to it with a radical vision of 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.
Wendy Liu is a tech commentator, software engineer and former startup founder who left the tech industry to pursue a masters degree in inequality from the London School of Economics. She has written for Logic Magazine, Tribune, and New Internationalist, and has been featured in articles for The Atlantic and CNBC on tech worker union organizing.
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Cosponsored by Haymarket Books and the Left Book Club.
The Left Book Club is a subscription book club for everyone interested in left politics. Relaunched along the lines of Victor Gollancz’s ground-breaking organisation active in the 1930s, the LBC seeks to popularise ideas from the left across the UK and abroad. Subscribe today to receive the best books on radical politics: https://www.leftbookclub.com/
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To Join the Left Book Club: https://www.leftbookclub.com/member
In the US, order a copy of Bit Tyrants here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1447-bit-tyrants
To order a copy of Abolish Silicon Valley: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781912248704
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/yrnBZMhKCnY
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools (6-23-20)
A conversation with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Dena Simmons and Brian Jones about abolitionist teaching and antiracist education.
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What would freedom look like in our schools?
How can abolitionist educators make the most of this moment to fight for humane, liberatory, anti-racist schooling for black youth and for all youth?
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the US education system overnight. The antiracist rebellion in the streets has shown a light on the deep racial inequality in America.
Educators and activists who have nurtured radical dreams for public schools now face an unprecedented moment of change, and the challenge of trying to teach and organize online in the midst of unfolding crises.
Scholar and author Bettina Love’s concept of abolitionist teaching is about adopting the radical stance of the movement that ultimately overthrew slavery, but persisted and insisted on freedom long before that victory.
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Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at University of Georgia. She is the author of We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom and Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South.
Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Georgia State University. She also serves as the director of the GSU Urban Literacy Clinic. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading educational journals and books. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award and the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year. She is the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.
Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is an activist, educator, and student of life from the Bronx, New York. She is the Assistant Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She writes and speaks nationally about social justice and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy as well as creating emotionally intelligent and safe classrooms within the context of equity and liberation. She is the author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People (St. Martin’s Press, 2021).
Brian Jones is the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He writes about black education history and politics.
Co-sponsored by:
Haymarket Books: https://www.haymarketbooks.org
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/uJZ3RPJ2rNc
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
Abolition Can't Wait: A Teach in with #8toAboltion (6-25-20)
Join us for a conversation with organizers from #8toAbolition about why abolishing the police and prison system can't wait.-
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Abolition can’t wait.
While communities across the country mourn the loss of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Jamel Floyd, and so many more Black victims of police murder, Campaign Zero released its "8 Can’t Wait campaign", offering a set of eight reforms they claim would reduce police killings by 72%.
As police and prison abolitionists, we believe that this campaign is dangerous and irresponsible, offering a slate of reforms that have already been tried and failed, that mislead a public newly invigorated to the possibilities of police and prison abolition, and that do not reflect the needs of criminalized communities.
We honor the work of abolitionists who have come before us, and those who organize now. A better world is possible. We refuse to allow the blatant co-optation of decades of abolitionist organizing toward reformist ends that erases the work of Black feminist theorists. As the abolitionist organization Critical Resistance recently noted, 8 Can’t Wait will merely “improve policing’s war on us.” Additionally, many abolitionists have already debunked the 8 Can’t Wait campaign’s claims, assumptions, and faulty science.
Abolition can’t wait.
The 8 Demands of #8toAbolition:
1. Defund the Police
2. Demilitarize Communities
3. Remove Police From Schools
4. Free People from Prisons and Jails
5. Repeal Laws That Criminalize Survival
6. Invest in Community Self-Governance
7. Provide Safe Housing for Everyone
8. Invest in Care, Not Cops
Find out more here: https://www.8toabolition.com
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/QfSm7JDhGL4
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
Mar 1, 2021
The Roots and Nature of the Syrian Revolution with Anand Gopal & more(6-20-20)
At its start, the Syrian Revolution in 2011 was a mass popular uprising for democracy and equality against Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship. It included people from all ethnicities and religious groups who liberated sections of the country and tried to build a new democratic society.
This panel will discuss the causes, nature and trajectory of this struggle for liberation, and the reasons for its defeat.
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Anand Gopal is an award-winning journalist and assistant research professor with the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and the Center on the Future of War at Arizona State University.
Loubna Mrie is a Syrian photographer, journalist, and writer. She covered the Syrian war as a photojournalist for Reuters from 2012 to 2014. Her work has been published in The Nation, Time Magazine, Vice, and The New Republic. She is currently writing her first book, about the war in Syria, for Penguin Random House.
Yasser Munif is a Sociology Assistant Professor in the Institute for Liberal Arts at Emerson College. He is the author and co-founder of the Global Campaign for Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution
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Co-sponsored by
Haymarket Books: https://www.haymarketbooks.org
Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com/
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Order a copy of Anand Gopal's book, No Good Men Among The Living here: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781250069269
Order a copy of Burning Country: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745337821/burning-country/
Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/uMaRawAa9WY
Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org
Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks